The True Ultimate Life
by Wordsmith42
Summary: Tails and Cosmo reunite, but their happiness is short-lived. A dangerous, power-hungry new enemy is here, and he will be the biggest challenge Sonic's gang has ever faced!


The True Ultimate Life

_**A Sonic X story**_

(Author's note)

The following story takes place approximately three months after the final battle against Dark Oak. It is primarily existent in the Sonic X continuity. Sonic, Sonic X, Knuckles, Tails, Eggman, Amy, Nazo, Cosmo, and all other related names, characters, areas, and logos are copyrighted trademarks of SEGA and/or 4Kids TV. (Actually, I'm not sure of Nazo's legal standing, but whatever.)

"AAAH!" Sonic screamed as Eggman nearly stepped on him in yet another giant robot. It looked disturbingly similar to Dr. Eggman himself. _How am I going to beat this one? _Sonic thought as a bright red laser nearly cut him in half. This machine was faster and more powerful than Eggman's previous buckets of bolts. It had been only months since the events at the center of the universe with Dark Oak, but one wouldn't know it looking at Eggman. He either forgot or ignored his actions back then, and had gone back to evil with a new vigor. Sonic suspected that Eggman had learned a little from the Metarex designs with this dangerous new robot.

"Once you're out of my way, I can finally conquer the world!" Eggman chortled.

"Not on my watch!" Sonic shot back as, for the fifth time, he went into a spinball. And, for the fifth time, Eggman seemed unfazed as Sonic bounced harmlessly off of the giant cyborg.

"Your spin attacks are harmless! Keep on trying; you'll get nowhere!" the doctor cackled maniacally as he shot the laser at Sonic once more. _I've got it! _Sonic thought. He ran in circles, and sure enough, the laser followed him.

"Maybe your tracking system is a little too smart!" Sonic said as he ran right between the Eggbot's legs. The laser followed him and hit its own source.

"Juuust great…" Eggman said. _BOOM!_ The robot exploded, sending Eggman flying away in his escape pod. "I'll be baaaaack!" he screamed.

"And I'll be waaaiitinnng!" Sonic mocked. He decided to run over to Tails' house. He knew that only three months ago today, Tails had lost his dream girl, a Seedrian named Cosmo. Sonic had tried to bring her back, but Chaos Regeneration had only yielded a seed that Tails promptly planted. Sonic saw the plant in the window. By now, it was in full bloom, and it was beautiful, if abnormal. The plant's stem ended in a bundle of leaves that had two roses growing out of it. Sonic thought it looked like Cosmo's head, but he would never depress Tails by saying that. As Sonic expected, he saw a depressed Tails through the window, sitting at his worktable with his head down. Sonic decided to go in and comfort his friend. "Hiya, pal," Sonic said as he patted Tails' shoulder.

"Oh, hi, Sonic," Tails lifted his head up. "What are you doing here?" Tails knew all too well why Sonic was here, but he asked anyway.

"Just stopping by to give you some company. I know what today is, and I wanted to see how you're doing."

Tails sniffled. "Hm." Sonic could see that Tails was still a wreck from losing Cosmo. Stray tears were still streaming down his face; looking at Tails, someone would think this only happened yesterday. But when you lose someone you like that much, it can take quite a while to get over it.

"Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?" Sonic asked.

"Not really, but I appreciate that you came. Thank you."

"Okay. Call me if you need anything, got it?"

"Gotcha. Thanks for coming over." A small smile broke Tails' face after Sonic left. Sonic wasn't exactly a sentimental guy, so Tails knew this was a big thing for him. "You know what? I'm going to get up and do something today. Maybe that'll take my mind off of…_her_," Tails stood and went down to his workroom to build a new plane, just for the fun of it. He hadn't built a thing since what happened with Dark Oak, but Tails decided to change that today.

ONE WEEK LATER

Things were quiet on Angel Island as Knuckles sat on the staircase leading up to the Master Emerald. It had shattered back on the Blue Typhoon due to power overload, but had since regenerated.

"Hey! Knuckles!" Tails shouted as he ran up to the altar.

"Tails! I wasn't expecting you here anytime soon," Knuckles said.

"Yeah. Neither was I, to be honest. Anyway, I just finished a new plane, and I was wondering if I could take a Chaos Emerald to power it. You do have them, right?"

"Why don't you just take one out of the X-Tornado?"

"It takes a long time to power up again if you remove and replace the emerald. I always like to have the X-Tornado ready for action, just in case."

"Okay. Here you go." Knuckles produced a Chaos Emerald and gave it to Tails.

"Thanks, Knux," Tails said, then he flew away.

When Tails got close to his house, the emerald glowed a little bit. Tails figured it was just reacting to the emeralds in the X-Tornado and thought nothing of it. However, as Tails bypassed Cosmo's plant, the emerald floated out of his hands and hovered right above the flower. A blinding white light developed around the emerald and the plant, and Tails was forced to look away. _What's going on? _Tails thought. When the light subsided after about a minute, Tails looked back to where the plant was and was in a state of shock. There, on the floor, was Cosmo, unconscious and holding the emerald in her hands.

"C-c-c-Cosmo…" Tails was speechless as he saw his girlfriend that was supposed to be dead, on his floor. He knew she was alive; he saw her breathing. "Oh, my gosh…" Tails picked her up and put her in his bed, and he waited for her to wake up. He didn't have to wait for very long, though, as she came to in about ten minutes.

_Where am I? _Cosmo thought. She opened her eyes to see Tails, looking at her in shock.

"T-Tails?" Cosmo quietly asked.

"Cosmo," Tails still couldn't believe his eyes. "I must be dreaming…"

"You aren't dreaming, because I'm very much awake. What happened?" Cosmo seemed dazed.

"Remember? The Blue Typhoon, Dark Oak, the Power Cannon? You should be dead right now."

"Tails…how am I here?"

"I don't know. I just carried a Chaos Emerald past the plant, and…" Tails realized for the first time that the plant wasn't there, and the flowerpot was broken on the ground. "Oh! Once the plant was in full bloom, it became reactant to Chaos Emeralds. Chaos Regeneration must have put you into some idle state or something, and an emerald was needed to complete the process!" Tails just then realized that Cosmo didn't have any idea what he was talking about. She was looking at him with blank eyes. "When you sacrificed yourself, Sonic tried to use Chaos Regeneration to bring you back, but a seed was all that came of it. I planted the seed, and once the plant was in full bloom, I guess it became reactant to chaos energy. I carried an emerald past it, and Chaos Regeneration finally finished!"

Cosmo still didn't quite understand. All she could think to do was get up and hug Tails in a deep embrace. "Who cares how I'm alive? Let's just enjoy it," she said. And the two just hugged and kissed each other for an indeterminate amount of time. It could have been two minutes or twenty minutes; neither Tails nor Cosmo would have been able to say.

MEANWHILE, AT SPACE COLONY ARK

The final pulse of chaos energy did it. The glowing white hedgehog awakened to find himself in a glass pod. He broke it with ease. The hedgehog had no memory of what had happened before, but he saw the wrecked space station and knew that it had been a long time since he was last awake. It didn't matter. The hedgehog knew what he wanted to do. Running a mental scan for the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald using his integration with them, the hedgehog found his prizes in close proximity to each other in another galaxy. How nice. Someone had gotten everything together for him. All he had to do was fetch it all. Another galaxy wasn't a problem. The hedgehog could use his immense power to teleport there with ease. The plan was simple: Get the emeralds and use their huge power to destroy the universe and build a new intergalactic empire in his own image. The hedgehog teleported into the orbit of the planet that held what he was looking for. He delved into his mental reserves of information given to him when he was created to find the planet's name. Wait. Created for what? The hedgehog strained to remember. Oh, yes. The original prototype for the ultimate life form. A being born from the Chaos Emeralds. The hedgehog discovered that the planet was called Mobius. Soon he would go there, and claim his prizes. Once he had them, nothing would stand in the way of Nazo. Nazo the Hedgehog.

Tails walked hand-in-hand with a blindfolded Cosmo. "Tails! Can I take this off yet?"

"Almost. We'll be there soon."

"Be _where?_"

"I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise," Tails chuckled. He had managed to keep Cosmo out all day, while Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy built her a house. Between Sonic's speed and Knuckles' strength, it was easy to build a house in one day, and Amy's help came in handy.

"Tails! Let me—"

"Go ahead. We're here."

Cosmo removed the blindfold and was awestruck. Standing in front of her was a house connected directly to Tails'. "Go on," said Tails proudly. "Step inside."

"How did you do this? That's why you didn't want to come back until now!"

"Bingo! Last night, I got Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy to build you a house today so I could surprise you. What do you think?"

"Oh, Tails, I just love it!" It made Tails smile to see his girlfriend so overjoyed. "I—oh my…" Cosmo was in shock yet again when she saw the inside. There were flowers and plants all over the inside of the house, and there was a sweet, flowery aroma in the air.

"I'm glad you like it. I also set up a place for you to garden out back," Tails said. "Plus, check this out." Tails went to one side of the house and opened a door that led directly into Tails' house. "We can see each other every day!"

"I—I don't know what to say. It's so perfect…" Cosmo trailed off, still looking around.

"Don't say anything, then," Tails said. "Whenever you're ready to leave, I have something else planned."

"What is it?"

"Come with me." Tails went into his house and down into his workroom, Cosmo following him. He entered a password, and the mechanical door went up to reveal a relatively small plane. "This is my first plane designed specifically for comfortable transport instead of speed or weapons power. And with the easy and intuitive controls, anyone can fly it. Specifically, you. This plane is my gift to you."

"Tails…"

"Now you have a place to live and a way to get around. Speaking of which, let's get going. Hop in!"

"Ummm…okay!" Cosmo sat down in the passenger's seat and Tails took the controls. He flew them to the fanciest restaurant in the nearby city.

"Dinner's on me!" Tails announced.

"This place is awfully expensive. Are you sure?" Cosmo didn't want Tails to spend too much on her, not after giving her a plane and a house.

"Of course! I just want you to have fun. Forget about me; tonight's about you!" Tails dropped about $50 for the two of them, but he didn't care, so long as Cosmo was having a good time. Finally, the two came back home late at night.

"Tails, this was the best day ever," Cosmo said.

"That was the plan. I'm glad you had such a good time," Tails said. The huge smile on Cosmo's face warmed his heart. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Tails," Cosmo replied as they both went inside their duplex.

THE NEXT DAY

Knuckles woke up from a deep sleep. He left his house on Angel Island to go to the Master and Chaos Emeralds. As he did, he saw a white, glowing figure with all eight emeralds preparing to fly off.

"Not as long as I'm here, he won't," Knuckles muttered angrily. "WHO ARE YOU! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" he bellowed as he charged the mysterious thief. When he was about ten feet away, he felt himself unable to move. He was then thrown backwards by an invisible force that he realized was telekinesis. The purloiner flew off at speeds expected of Super Sonic.

"GUYS! GUYS!" Knuckles was screaming to get his friends' attention as he ran to the valley from Angel Island to tell them about what had just happened.

"What is it, Knuckles? Have a bad dream or something?" Sonic teased, amused by just how agitated his friend was.

"A glowing white hedgehog just made off with the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald!"

"Whaaat?" Sonic was shocked. He made fun of Knuckles a lot, but was amazed that anyone actually got past him. "What happened?"

"I was coming out of my house when I saw some guy taking the emeralds! I tried to stop him, but he was too powerful," Knuckles seemed genuinely upset.

"Where did he go?" Sonic asked. Even if he couldn't be immediately stopped, Sonic was confident that they could chase this guy down and get the emeralds back.

"He flew straight up, so I'm guessing he went into space."

"Let's tell Tails!" Sonic grabbed Knuckles by the wrist and they ran to Tails' and Cosmo's duplex. "Tails!" Sonic yelled for him as he knocked on Tails' door.

Tails had been inside, chatting with Cosmo. "Excuse me for just a minute," Tails said when he heard Sonic's voice. He opened the door to see Sonic and Knuckles, clearly agitated. "What's the problem, guys?" Tails was anxious to get back to his girlfriend, so he wanted to hurry things up. "Well?"

"Some guy took the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, that's the problem!" Knuckles exclaimed, annoyed by Tails' haste in moving things along as if this didn't matter.

"Oh, my gosh," Tails couldn't believe it.

"He seemed to flee into space. We need to follow him," Knuckles said. "Is the Blue Typhoon fixed?"

"Uh, yeah, but we have no power source for it if the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald are stolen…"

"Oh yeah," Knuckles seemed utterly defeated. "So what do we do? You're the scientist."

"Tails? What's wrong?" Cosmo walked up behind Tails, startling him.

"It seems that the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald have been stolen," Tails said, an audible note of defeat in his voice as well. "And we have no way to pursue the thief."

"I know you'll come up with something. You've done so much. I believe in you," Cosmo said with bright eyes.

Tails perked up. "She's right. We can figure something out. We just need an alternative power source."

"That power source being…?" Sonic said, irritated that Cosmo and Tails were being so lovey in such a situation.

"Wait a minute!" Tails said. "There are still two Chaos Emeralds in the X-Tornado! I can use them to power the Blue Typhoon."

"Are you sure, Tails? Can just two emeralds power the Blue Typhoon?" Sonic asked.

"Knuckles?" Tails turned to the resident chaos expert.

"It's not enough. We would need to severely modify the ship to make it considerably smaller. Just some light engines and weaponry, a bridge, and living quarters. Even then, it would be risky."

As if on cue, Nazo appeared behind Sonic and Knuckles, a bag at his feet. Cosmo was the first to notice.

"Guys! Who's that?" Cosmo sounded scared and clung to Tails. Sonic and Knuckles turned around just in time for Nazo to take all four of them in his telekinetic grasp.

"Who are you?" Sonic asked, trying his best to hide his fear.

"I demand that you give back the emeralds!" Knuckles roared, unbridled rage in his voice. The glowing hedgehog paused for a second, then spoke. It copied the "I" from what Knuckles said, and the "are" from what Sonic said. It said the two words in Sonic's and Knuckles' voices, respectively, and added his name in a creepy, robotic voice.

"I…are…Nazo," the hedgehog said. It appeared to take him effort to speak. _Give me the two remaining Chaos Emeralds or perish. You cannot defeat me in battle. If you try, you will be terminated instantly._ Nazo apparently couldn't talk very easily, but he could transmit his thoughts to others around him.

"Never!" Tails screamed.

"Sonic!" a familiar voice sounded. Amy was running up. "I felt that you were in danger, Sonic!"

"Amy, run away!" Sonic yelled. "Don't let him get you!"

"What? Aaah!" It was too late. Nazo had caught Amy as well.

_Give me the Chaos Emeralds! Resistance will result in immediate death! If you do not comply I am not afraid to destroy you!_

"Just try!" Sonic said, and he spun free of the telekinetic hold to attack Nazo. Nazo blasted him with a beam of chaos energy, knocking him 20 feet back. However, the distraction was enough for Nazo to lose concentration and drop everyone else.

"Everyone, attack him all at once!" Knuckles yelled. The entire gang, bar Cosmo, attacked Nazo: Sonic with a spinball, Knuckles with his fists, Amy with her hammer and Tails with a small blaster.

"Cosmo!" Tails yelled. "Run away!" Cosmo ran away as fast as she could, but Nazo made the connection. He blasted everyone away with a wave of chaos energy and picked up Cosmo in his telekinetic grip.

_Give me the emeralds or the girl dies! _Nazo was ruthless, and Tails felt utterly helpless. He turned to go inside to get the Chaos Emeralds from the X-Tornado.

"Tails! Don't give him the emeralds!" Cosmo yelled. Tails had never seen her so scared.

"I can't lose you again!" Tails went inside and emerged with the remaining Chaos Emeralds. He walked slowly, eventually stopping. "Sonic, CATCH!" Tails threw the emeralds to Sonic, and before Nazo could react, Sonic flew at Nazo, knocking him away and breaking his concentration, causing him to drop Cosmo. She ran to Tails, half-crying. He hugged her hard.

"Oh, Tails…" she sobbed into his shoulder. "I'm so sorry…"

"It's okay, it's okay. You couldn't do a thing about it," Tails whispered in her ear. He stroked her hair, comforting her. Tails broke their embrace and held Cosmo in front of him, staring into her eyes. "I would do anything for you. Don't ever forget that."

"Tails, I know you're kinda busy, but we need some cover fire here!" Sonic interrupted. Tails reacted quickly.

"Go inside," he said to Cosmo. Tails got out his blaster and began to shoot at Nazo. The glowing hedgehog seemed to be immune to the lasers, though. It did work as a nice distraction, though, as Nazo appeared to feel it, even if the lasers didn't hurt him. While Nazo was distracted by the laser fire, Sonic rushed him and rammed him with the power of the two emeralds. Nazo dropped his bag that contained the Master Emerald and the five Chaos Emeralds.

"Knuckles! Amy! Get the emeralds and run!" Sonic yelled. Knuckles grabbed the Master Emerald, and Amy grabbed the five Chaos Emeralds.

_I cannot stay any longer. I will be back! You cannot keep the emeralds from me forever!_ Nazo thought-spoke. Sonic flew to ram him, but Nazo teleported away, leaving Sonic to crashland.

"Hey, Tails, here are the emeralds back for the X-Tornado," Sonic gave Tails the two Chaos Emeralds. "That was some quick thinking back there. Nice job."

"Thanks," Tails was still a little bit shocked, but he hid it well. He had frozen up when Nazo got Cosmo. Tails had only thought to throw Sonic the emeralds once he was inside and could think. When he had seen Cosmo that scared, all he could think of was helping her. He couldn't think clearly until he didn't see that face in front of him. And now that Nazo knew his weak spot, Tails had to keep his guard up.

"Hello? Tails?" Sonic said.

"What?"

"You zoned out or something. You okay?" Tails saw the look of concern on Sonic's face, and realized that he had been just standing there while he thought.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just…thinking," Tails said.

"Okay. Bye, pal," Sonic jetted off.

"Bye." Tails went inside. It was about 7:30, and the sun was just beginning to set. He knocked on the door between the two sections of the duplex. "Cosmo?"

"Come on in, Tails," Cosmo still sounded sad. Tails walked in to find her sitting on her bed.

"Are you okay?" Tails was worried.

"Yeah…" Cosmo said. "I just feel like all I do is put you and your friends in trouble."

"Cosmo, you do this all the time. You couldn't help it," it hurt Tails' heart to see Cosmo this upset.

"Do what?"

"Blame yourself for something you had no control over," Tails tried hard to make it not sound like an insult.

Cosmo sighed. "I just feel like I'm no use except as a trap."

Tails grinned. "Your eyes trap me. Does that count?"

"I don't know," Cosmo said as her face finally brightened up. She hugged Tails, and he hugged her back. They kissed.

"Go to sleep, Cosmo," Tails said quietly. He realized she already had in his arms. Tails slowly put her down on her bed and left.

Tails woke up at about 5 AM. He didn't know what exactly did it, but something woke him up. All of a sudden, he heard Cosmo shriek. "COSMO!" he yelled.

"Tails! Help!" Cosmo shouted. "It's Nazo!"

_Quiet, you little PEST!_ Tails heard Nazo's thought-speak to Cosmo.

"No one talks to her that way," Tails grumbled. He ran into Cosmo's side of the house to see Nazo holding her in a headlock. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" Despite the fact that Tails was better as a scientist than a fighter, he was never going to stand by while some guy hurt his girlfriend. He tackled Nazo, who was so distracted by keeping Cosmo still that he actually didn't avoid it. "Cosmo! RUN!" Tails tried his best to keep Nazo down, but the powerful hedgehog teleported out from under him and telekinetically grabbed Cosmo.

_I will not be foiled again. You have ten seconds to give me the two emeralds or I kill the girl!_

"Tails, don't do it! I'm—"

_Quiet! One more word out of you and you die!_ Nazo thought-spoke angrily.

Tails was beaten. He couldn't give Cosmo up, but Tails knew how powerful Nazo got when he had even one Chaos Emerald. _Wait! I have an idea,_ Tails thought. "Fine. You win. Take the emeralds." Tails went over to his workshop and got the gems out of the X-Tornado. Before he went up, though, he called Sonic (everyone had hung on to their ComLinks). "Sonic! Do you read me?" Tails urgently whispered.

"Hey, Tails. What's up?" Sonic said

"Ssh! I'm in my workroom. Nazo's upstairs and he has Cosmo. He expects me to bring him the emeralds from the X-Tornado in a couple of seconds. Get over here ASAP!"

"On it. Bye," Sonic whispered and hung up.

_Get up here with the emeralds or she dies! _Since it was just brainwaves, walls didn't make it any quieter or harder to hear.

"I'm coming!" Tails added the slightest note of mockery in his voice as he slowly walked up the stairs. _Come on, Sonic. Where are you?_ Tails thought. Right on time, Tails heard a door get kicked down.

"You again!" Tails heard Sonic's voice from upstairs. He ran up to help out. As Tails was running into Cosmo's side of the house, Nazo hurled Cosmo away to deal with Sonic.

"Cosmo!" Tails caught his girlfriend in mid-air. She was crying. _I will kill that bastard if it's the last thing I do._ "Here," Tails gave Cosmo his ComLink. "Get out of sight and earshot of Nazo and use that to call Knuckles and tell him to put up some more security around the emeralds.

"Okay," Cosmo sniffled, then ran and hid from Nazo in Tails' workroom. She opened up the watch and called Knuckles. "Hello? Knuckles?"

"Hi, Ta—erm, Cosmo! You're using Tails' ComLink."

"Yeah. Now listen. Nazo's here, and Sonic and Tails are fighting him. He'll probably be at Angel Island soon. Keep your guard up."

"Are you sure? Can Sonic and Tails take him on their own?"

"They'll be fine. Stay there," Cosmo wasn't usually very assertive, but Knuckles got the message very clearly.

"Okay. Over and out."

"Bye," Cosmo hung up.

"Hey!" Sonic and Tails yelled at Nazo as he got the Chaos Emeralds out of their hands.

_Now that I've gotten these Chaos Emeralds from you meddlers, I can get the rest and the Master Emerald from that moron echidna. Soon, all will be lost! _Nazo teleported away to Angel Island.

Knuckles had come prepared for Nazo this time. He had hidden the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald where Nazo would never find them, even with his ability to locate them. This time Knuckles knew that Nazo wouldn't get past him. _Good luck, shiny boy, _Knuckles thought.

_Fork over the emeralds or perish!_ Nazo appeared behind Knuckles. Nazo found it pathetic that the hothead thought that he could best him.

"Try me!" Knuckles was eager to give Nazo a piece of his mind. Knuckles rushed Nazo, who dodged his volley with ease. Then Nazo did something that Knuckles didn't expect. His hands changed to look the same as Knuckles', and he copied the attack to the letter. Only this time, it hit. Knuckles was sent back ten feet.

_You can't defeat me. Give me the emeralds if you want to live, _Nazo said. Knuckles realized that he had two Chaos Emeralds.

"That's why he's so powerful," Knuckles whispered to himself. "SHOVEL CLAW!" Knuckles screamed as he used his Shovel Claw to dig underground.

_Where are you? Show yourself, coward!_ Nazo was more scared than he let on.

Knuckles emerged directly under Nazo and landed a hard hit on him, knocking him away from the two Chaos Emeralds. "I'm a coward? You're the one who just teleports away when he's scared!"

_You dare insult me? I'll grind you to a pulp!_ Nazo was getting mad, just as Knuckles planned. He picked up Knuckles telekinetically and smashed him against the ground.

"Bah, telekinesis is for suckers. Fight me like a man, loser!" Knuckles was trying to convince Nazo to just have a fistfight where Knuckles would be superior.

_You fool! _Nazo was getting more and more angry. _Fine then. Let's go!_ Nazo ran up and threw a punch at Knuckles, who easily blocked it. Knuckles threw a punch back and hit Nazo squarely in the face. Knuckles was satisfied that his plan had worked. Nazo might have had plenty of fancy powers, but he was pretty weak physically. Knuckles landed another two punches before Nazo hit him with a left hook. Nazo was stronger than Knuckles had thought, but Knuckles knew that he could win.

"Eat on this!" Knuckles yelled as he put a powerful jab right into Nazo's mouth.

Nazo was severely hurt by now. _You win this round, echidna. But mark my words; I will destroy you and all of your annoying friends!_ Nazo teleported away.

AT EGGMAN'S BASE

Eggman had finally hacked into the chip in Cosmo's brain, and was using her as a spy. This time, he would make sure no one found out that it was actually being used. He found out about Nazo, and decided to do some research. Eggman looked at the information reserves about Space Colony ARK in his computer, and he found out some interesting things. While looking through files, he noticed a password-protected file that he hadn't seen before. He might not have been able to hack it back then, but he had learned a lot since. Eggman looked at the document about Nazo. Nazo apparently was made before the Biolizard as the original prototype for the ultimate life form: a being born from the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Nazo apparently had a huge craving for power and desired the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald. It was decided that he was too dangerous to sustain and Nazo was put into static animation. He was slated for termination, but it apparently never happened. Eggman chuckled. All he had to do was ally with this powerful hedgehog and victory would be in the bag. Eggman decided to go back to the spy chip's feed. _What? How is this possible? _Eggman thought as he saw and heard only static from the chip. _They must have caught the signal and jammed the chip._ _Oh, well. No matter. I already know what I need to know._

"What?" Cosmo asked.

"I detected waves coming from the chip again. Someone must have hacked into its feed," Tails was concerned. He knew that the Metarex were dead and gone, so who could have hacked into the chip? Nazo didn't have those kinds of resources, so—Eggman! "I think I know who hacked it."

"Who? Can we stop them?" Cosmo was a little bit disturbed. If Tails was right, that meant that she was a spy again.

"I think it's Dr. Eggman, and I know how to completely mess up the chip's system. I didn't have the resources on the Blue Typhoon, but here I can make a microscopic jammer. Give me your amulet—erm, as long as you don't mind."

"Okay…" Cosmo removed the gem from her chest and gave it to Tails. She never took the amulet off, but she trusted Tails with her life and everything else.

"Just give me 30 minutes," Tails said confidently. After all of his experience with radar on the Blue Typhoon, he could make a jammer for just about anything. Tails walked down to his workroom and started working. To make the jammer small enough to be invisible, Tails had to do all of his work under a special microscope. Tails chose to put the jammer on the amulet because it was removable and had no chance of endangering Cosmo's safety (instead of putting it in her brain, arm, etc.). Even if the jammer somehow did short out, he knew that the jewel didn't conduct electricity. Meanwhile, Cosmo had 30 minutes to kill and decided to spend them on her gardening. Even after she did the weeding and checked on all of her flowers, she had ten minutes left and nothing to do. She decided to go down and watch Tails work.

"Hi, Tails," Cosmo said, startling him. Tails jumped up halfway out of his seat.

"Oh, hi, Cosmo," Tails took his eyes out of the microscope. "You surprised me. What are you doing here?"

"I got bored, so I came down to watch."

"I'm sorry, but there isn't much to see. I'm designing this jammer to be microscopic, so I have to look through a microscope to make it."

"Why exactly do you need to build it on the gem?" Regardless of how much she trusted Tails, Cosmo hated not having the amulet with her.

"Well, would you rather I sew it onto your arm or your brain?" Tails joked. "This is the safest option for you."

Cosmo laughed. "I can't argue with that," she said.

Tails got back to work. While he worked, he said, "If you're really bored, why don't you fly into town? I haven't seen you touch your plane."

"Excuse me, did I hear you right? You expect me to drive?" Cosmo was surprised. Tails was the pilot; Cosmo hadn't flown a thing in her life.

"When I built your plane, I made the controls simple and intuitive with the intent of you flying it," Tails said. "Anyone could pick that up and fly around."

"I don't know," Cosmo didn't trust herself alone in a plane. "I'd like to at least have you in there with me the first time I fly it. I'm kind of scared."

"I understand," Tails was a little bit disappointed that she was afraid, but he got her point. "And, that just about does it! I'm finished." Tails got up and held up a pair of tweezers.

"Is there something in those?" Cosmo found it hard to believe that anything that small could serve as a fully functional jammer.

"Your jammer," Tails proudly declared. "Allow me to just put on the adhesive…" Tails went back to his microscope for a second and did something, then he put the microscopic jammer on Cosmo's amulet. "Here. This should completely jam that chip." Tails gave his girlfriend back the amulet.

"Thank you," Cosmo said as she put the jewel back on. "I don't suppose you would mind teaching me how to fly?"

Tails smiled. "There's nothing that I'd enjoy more."

Nazo floated in space, overlooking Mobius. It was clear to him that the girl was Tails' weak spot, and Tails had two emeralds that Nazo needed. But Sonic and Knuckles would come to his aid whenever he needed it. Before Nazo went for Tails, he had to incapacitate Sonic and Knuckles. Nazo knew that Tails wouldn't give up the emeralds without a fight, and the kid's gadgets were dangerous. That was why the girl was so important. If Nazo got her, Tails would surely hand over the emeralds. Just grabbing her clearly wouldn't work; it had failed twice. Nazo would have to distract Tails' comrades and bring the girl to a base far from where they all live. Would this be easier if Tails had all of the emeralds? Yes. Nazo would find a way to get all of the Chaos Emeralds to Tails. The echidna was a weak-minded fool, driven purely by rage. Nazo could certainly influence his mind to give Tails the emeralds. Nazo would pick up the Master Emerald later. Actually, he should pick it up first. Nazo looked at the planet and felt pleased with himself. Everything was falling into place. Nazo made two copies of himself and commanded them: _You. Distract Sonic. You, Knuckles. Make sure to stay away from each other, or they will see through the plan. Dismissed._ The two pseudo-Nazos flew toward Mobius at supersonic speed. _Now, to build a base and get that girl._ Nazo teleported back down and began his work.

"…and it's that simple!" Tails had just finished teaching Cosmo how to fly her plane. "Do you feel better about flying now?" he asked.

"Yes. Thank you, Tails," Cosmo said. They had spent the past two hours (and one crash) working on her flying skills, and now Cosmo felt like she could fly anytime. Cosmo hugged her boyfriend and went inside. Tails was amazed at how quickly Cosmo had learned to fly the plane. Even with the simple controls, she became skilled at it remarkably fast for someone who had never flown before. Tails went inside after Cosmo.

"Wait," he said.

"What is it, Tails?"

"Check this out," Tails ran over to his workroom and came back with a bunch of metal circles. He began hiding them inside the plants that littered Cosmo's side of the house. "There," he said when he was finished.

"What are these?" Cosmo had no idea what Tails had just done.

"It's a laser security system. I have a bad feeling that that Nazo guy will come back, and I'll be ready this time.

"Why are you putting them in my room, though?"

"He knows that you're my weak point. Twice now he's grabbed you and threatened you for the emeralds," Tails said with a sad note in his voice. "This is for your own protection."

Cosmo sighed. "This is what I'm talking about. I just feel like all I do is put you and your friends in danger."

"Come on, don't talk like that. As far as I'm concerned, you're perfect, no matter how dangerous you are," Tails joked. He kissed her. When they broke their embrace, Tails stared into his girlfriend's eyes. "I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'll do anything for you."

Cosmo had tears in her eyes. "That is just so sweet, Tails." She was amazed at how much Tails loved her, and she loved him just as much.

"I'm leaving. I have to go out and get some parts," Tails said. He looked back as he walked out the door. "Stay safe," he said.

Tails didn't really need to go get parts. He just went to the café and sat down, trying to sort this out in his mind. _Nazo knows that I'll do anything for Cosmo and I know he'll use that to his advantage. What if he gets her while Sonic's not around or I can't contact him? Everyone would be screwed._ Tails had also left to leave Cosmo alone to think. He realized how hard this was for her.

"Hey, kid," one of the cashiers said. "You've been sitting there for twenty minutes, you're all alone, and you haven't bought a thing. Either buy something or get out."

"Oh, sorry," Tails was embarrassed that the cashier had had to call him out. He walked up to the desk. "I'll have a croissant and a cup of decaf."

"Anything in the coffee?"

"No, I like it black."

"Okay, that'll be $4.50."

"Here," Tails gave the money to the cashier, and the cashier gave him a croissant.

"Your coffee will be ready in a couple of minutes; what's your name?"

"Miles," Tails said.

"Okay, we'll call you when it's ready."

"Thank you," Tails sat back down. As he ate his croissant, he started thinking again. _I just don't get it. Who is this Nazo guy anyway? Where did he come from, and what does he want?_

"Order for Miles. Um, hello? Coffee for 'Miles'. Will Miles please take his order? Miles!"

"Wha-what?" Tails went red to the face. He had zoned out again.

"Here. Take your coffee," Tails walked up and took the drink.

"Thank you. I apologize for zoning out back there," Tails said, still a little embarrassed.

"You're welcome; have a nice evening."

"You, too," Tails said, then left.

_All I am is a trap. I feel useless. Tails said he would do anything for me, but I don't want him to if it's only in our best interest and no one else's. _Cosmo sat at home, thinking about herself, and Tails, and Nazo. She realized that she was the problem. Twice, Nazo had threatened her. And twice, Tails had nearly given in. _Does Tails think I'm a burden? Do Sonic, or Knuckles, or Amy think I'm a burden? _Cosmo sighed. _This is just what Tails is talking about. I can't do anything about it when Nazo captures me. Why do I blame myself? _Cosmo decided to go out back to her gardening. Maybe that would take her mind off of things.

After about fifteen minutes, Cosmo heard the door open. "Cosmo?" She heard Tails' voice.

"Hi, Tails," Cosmo greeted. She got up and went inside. "Did you find the parts you needed?" No response. "Are you okay?" Still nothing. "Tails?" Suddenly, Cosmo felt an arm wrap around her throat. "What the—"

_Tails isn't here to save you this time. Shut up and quit resisting._

"What did you do with Tails?" Cosmo was terrified.

_He was never here. I copied his voice. You're coming with me._ Nazo teleported himself and Cosmo to his base, leaving behind a small metal disc.

About ten minutes later, Tails walked in. He noticed that Cosmo's front door was hanging open. "Hey, Cosmo," Tails said, slightly worried. "Everything alright?" The house was silent. _Maybe she went out or something._ After two hours, though, it was 8:00 and Cosmo still wasn't home. Plus, Tails saw that the plane was still in the workroom. "Oh, _no._" Tails knew exactly what had happened. Why hadn't the laser system worked? Nazo must have been invisible to it. _Wait, what's that?_ Tails saw a small metal circle on the floor. Tails grabbed it and pushed a button on the bottom. A hologram arose from the disc, showing text that automatically scrolled. Tails read to himself: THE PLANT GIRL IS BEING HELD AT MY BASE: THE ABANDONED WAREHOUSE IN THE CITY. COME ALONE AND UNARMED WITH THE SEVEN CHAOS EMERALDS WITHIN 30 MINUTES. THERE ARE CAMERAS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE STRONGHOLD. IF YOU BRING ANYONE WITH YOU, I WILL KILL THE GIRL. IF YOU ARRIVE IN ANY FORM OF MECHANIZED TRANSPORT, PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, I WILL KILL THE GIRL.

"No…_no…NOOOO!" _Tails screamed to no one. He knew that Nazo had him beat; he had to choose between his and his girlfriend's fate and that of his friends. Tails was aware that if Nazo got the seven Chaos Emeralds, the fight against him would be over. If he lost Cosmo a second time, he would never be the same. Regardless of what Tails chose, he lost.

Sonic fought Nazo hard. He was holding his own, but the silver hedgehog was slowly gaining the advantage. Sonic was outpowered greatly, but he fought. For some reason, Nazo wasn't talking this time. _Weird…_ Sonic thought. Nazo was pushing Sonic farther and farther away from the city, and Sonic didn't know why. He was getting suspicious, though.

Knuckles was fighting a battle that he couldn't win. He couldn't contact Sonic for assistance, and this time, Nazo seemed more in control than their last fight. He wasn't even thought-speaking. Knuckles was trying to protect the Master Emerald and was playing more defensively than offensively; Nazo was clearly pushing toward the giant jewel. _What are Sonic and Amy doing? _Knuckles was keeping Nazo back, but he was getting closer. _What am I gonna do?_

Tails had to act fast and get the rest of the emeralds from Knuckles. He flew to Angel Island as quickly as he could. Tails had a plan…he just had to think of it. "Knuckles? Knuckles!" Tails spotted Knuckles fighting Nazo. _How is Nazo there? He should be at his base!_

"Tails! A little help here?" Knuckles was in trouble with Nazo. Tails didn't care how the glowing enemy was there; he just wanted to help Knuckles take him. However, the fight ended quickly. Despite Tails and Knuckles' powerful fighting, Nazo managed to get the Master Emerald and teleport away with it.

"Just great!" Knuckles exclaimed. "He's got the emerald. We're screwed! I recommend grabbing all of our friends, hopping on the Blue Typhoon, and going back to Earth."

"Not just yet," Tails said, a fire in his eyes. "Get the five Chaos Emeralds that you have. I have a plan so crazy it just might work."

"Let me go!" Cosmo yelled at Nazo. She had been doing so for the last fifteen minutes. It wasn't going to make Nazo let her go, but it was certainly wearing on his nerves.

_Stop that incessant shrieking, or I'll kill you right here and now!_ Nazo mentally yelled at Cosmo. It hurt her mind. She shut her mouth.

A loud rocket noise broke the short silence. "Hello, Na—Cosmo?"

"Dr. Eggman?"

_Who is the fat man?_

"Fat man?" Eggman was offended as he shut down his jetpack. "This 'fat man' is Doctor Ivo Robotnik. I became known as Dr. Eggman around 1999."

_Why are you here?_

"Well, I seem to have come at an inopportune moment. I wish to ally with you, but it's sort of awkward to discuss terms in front of a hostage," Eggman gestured toward Cosmo, who was hanging upside down above a fire pit.

"I'm right here, you know," Cosmo had a hint of annoyance in her voice.

_I work alone. You have nothing that I desire. Leave here at once or perish._

"What if I told you I had Chaos Emeralds?" Eggman said.

_Do not attempt to deceive me. I know where all of the emeralds are and who is in possession of them. Leave or I will kill you!_

"I can be dangerous. You choose: I'll be your most deadly enemy or your most valuable ally."

_LEAVE! I AM NOT AFRAID TO HURT YOU! I DON'T NEED AN IMBECILE LIKE YOU WEIGHING DOWN MY PLANS!_

"Are you sure? If you don't let me join you, I'll destroy you. Oh, by the way, I'm guessing Tails has the emeralds?"

_What makes you say that?_

"Well, why else would you take Cosmo?"

"Still right here," Cosmo would have been crossing her arms if she wasn't hanging upside down.

_LEAVE!_ Nazo shot a bolt of chaos energy at Eggman. It missed and singed his moustache.

"Fine! But be warned: You will soon feel the wrath of Eggman!" Eggman re-activated his jetpack and flew off.

"Come in, Sonic!" Tails said into his ComLink. An image appeared on the screen

"Hey, Tails! I'm a little busy right now. Nazo decided to pay me a little visit," Sonic said.

"Wait a minute…Knuckles, the base, now you? Sonic! It's a fake! Just put some spin power into him; he'll dematerialize quickly, then speed to the city ASAP!"

"Is that true? Well then, I'll be there soon!" Sonic hung up. He went on the offensive against the fake Nazo. Sure enough, one reckless, gung-ho spin caused the clone to disappear. _I'll be there soon, Tails. _

Tails and Knuckles waited on the outskirts of the city for Sonic to arrive. Tails brought binoculars. "Where is he?" Knuckles asked.

"He'll be here soon. I know it," Tails said. Just as he did, Sonic arrived.

"You called?" Sonic was calm and cool.

"Great, Sonic. You know where the big warehouse is?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, the one that was just slated for demolition," Sonic said.

"What?"

"Don't worry; it won't be for a couple of days. So what do I do?"

Knuckles spoke up. "Take the emeralds and turn into Super Sonic. Jet through the building's second floor, through the far left window."

Sonic was a little bit surprised at Knuckles' precision. "How did you know where to hit?"

"Tails brought binoculars and looked through the window."

"Yeah," Tails said, clearly angered. "Apparently, the brute has Cosmo upside down over a fire pit."

"Okay, lay 'em on me, I guess," Sonic said. Tails gave him the Chaos Emeralds, and the gems revolved around Sonic, going faster and faster until he took in their power. "Let's do this," Sonic was fired up and ready to go. "YAAAHH!" He yelled as he bashed through the window and engaged Nazo.

"Sonic!" Cosmo said.

"Hold tight, Cosmo!" Sonic told her as he fought Nazo.

_You think you can best me in combat? HA! Good luck, spiny!_ Even against Super Sonic, Nazo put up a surprisingly good fight, but it was seven emeralds to none, and Sonic was definitely winning.

"COSMO!" Tails yelled as he flew in. "Sonic, hit the release button!"

"If you say so!" Sonic smacked Nazo away and hit the button.

Cosmo screamed as the braces around her ankles released. She continued screaming even after Tails caught her. "Cosmo, you're not falling anymore," Tails tried hard to suppress a giggle.

Cosmo laughed as Tails flew them out of the building. "Delayed reaction," she joked. Both of them laughed. Cosmo kissed her boyfriend on the cheek.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Nazo were still fighting. Sonic was slowly injuring Nazo, bit by bit. _You may have hurt me today, but I will rule the universe! _Nazo teleported away, and Sonic flew back to Tails, Knuckles, and Cosmo.

"Aren't you going to use Chaos Control and chase him?" Knuckles asked.

"Nah. He'll be back, and I'll be ready."

"Cosmo, what happened? How did he get you?" Tails was concerned that Nazo would try again, but he wanted to know the details anyway.

"I'll tell you later," Cosmo said. She knew how much this meant to Tails, but she felt weird discussing it in front of Sonic and Knuckles. She didn't quite know why, though.

"Want a ride home, Knux?"

"Hey, what about us?" Cosmo said, and she wished she hadn't said it the second she had.

"Cosmo, don't worry. I've got transport." He opened up his ComLink. "X-Tornado to position."

Cosmo loved how handy Tails was. He thought of everything. The X-Tornado arrived in a couple of minutes. The couple flew home, and when they got there, Tails said: "I'm exhausted. I think I'll go to bed early today."

"Wait," Cosmo grabbed Tails' shoulder before he went upstairs. "You wanted me to tell you how Nazo got me."

"Oh, yeah. Tell me," Tails was glad she had reminded him.

"Well, I heard your voice call for me, and I came inside. But I didn't see you anywhere, and Nazo came up behind me and got me in a headlock. He said that he copied your voice…" Cosmo trailed off. Reliving the events brought tears to her eyes.

"I don't want to see you like this. Don't tell me if it disturbs you that much," Tails was concerned about Cosmo and her safety, but he was more angry at Nazo for threatening his girlfriend three times. He hugged Cosmo and held her tight. "I'll kill that guy. I will kill him. He's made you cry three times, and that's three times too many," Tails whispered angrily into Cosmo's ear.

"Tails…" Cosmo had never seen Tails this upset.

Tails sighed. "I hate that you have to see me like this, Cosmo," he said, cooling down. "I know you don't like violence, but it's the truth. He doesn't have the right to do this to either of us."

"Tails, am I a burden to you and your friends?" Cosmo wished she hadn't asked.

"Where would you get that idea?" Tails was surprised at his girlfriend. "No, of course not."

"Again, he's taken me three times. What if Sonic hadn't been able to help? What if—"

"Ssh," Tails put his finger over Cosmo's mouth. "What if this, what if that; I don't care. Why dwell on the past like this?"

"I can't fight, and I'm not any sort of technical genius," Cosmo said, depressed. "My only use is as bait that the enemies can use."

"You're wrong. Without you, I wouldn't be able to do what I do. When I lost you, I was depressed for three months. I'm only as good as I am with you, whether you're my motivation or at my side."

"One more thing," Cosmo said. "While I was there, at Nazo's base, Eggman came."

"What? Why?" Tails was surprised. "Why would Eggman go to meet you or Nazo?"

"It wasn't about me," Cosmo said, and a wry smile broke her face.

"Why are you smiling?" Now Tails was even more confused.

"Eggman said something like 'It's awkward to discuss terms in front of a hostage,'" Cosmo wanted to laugh and cry. "I pointed out that I was right there. It was just kind of funny at the time."

Tails was amused and concerned. "Wait…did Eggman get to ally with Nazo?"

"No. Nazo attacked him and Eggman flew off. He said that he would be Nazo's enemy if he couldn't be his friend," Cosmo suppressed a giggle when she remembered how funny Eggman looked with a singed moustache.

"That means we should ally with Eggman," Tails said, formulating a plan.

"Okay," Cosmo sounded tired. "I'm going to bed."

"Goodnight," Tails said.

Tails was up for another hour or so while he worked on how to contact Eggman. _I've got it!_ Tails thought as he remembered that Eggman's ship from the Metarex wars was probably wherever he was. Tails attempted to call the ship: "Tails to Egg Pod. Come in, Egg Pod, over."

Eggman heard a faint beeping in his new base. _What is that?_ He wondered. Eggman traced the beeping to the wrecked Egg Pod from the final battle with Dark Oak. _The communication system still works?_ Eggman picked up the receiver. "Eggman to caller, over."

"Tails here," Eggman heard Tails over the battered speaker system.

"Tails! What do you want?" The Doctor was surprised.

"Cosmo told me—"

"Wait. You got her back? Impressive…" _If those guys can beat Nazo, I'm screwed._

"Yeah," Tails said, his transmission slightly garbled through the beat-up speakers. "Anyway, she told me everything. That you wanted to either ally with him or defeat him."

"Yes…" Eggman had a hunch as to where Tails was going with this, but he wasn't going to say it.

"Then we share a common enemy. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' I don't like you, Eggman, but I think we should team up."

"Hmm…What's in it for me?" Eggman knew exactly what was in it for him.

"I know you can't beat him alone," Tails said, trying not to sound insulting. "You want to be rid of Nazo."

"Very well, then," Eggman hung up as he said it. _Excellent. I can double-cross the kid and get on Nazo's side._ Eggman was going to get the Chaos Emeralds from Tails for a made-up robot, and he was going to use them as payment for Nazo. Eggman chuckled to himself. Soon, the Eggman Empire would be a reality!

_It's clear that kidnapping the girl won't work,_ Nazo thought as he rebuilt his base. It had failed three times for three tries, and that was two too many out of one too many. If a plan didn't work once, it could be re-tried. But there was no point to trying the same plan three times. Nazo had to think of a new idea. He couldn't just assault anyone of the group; they would contact each other and take him down. Even with his awesome power, Nazo couldn't take the entire gang without any Chaos Emeralds, especially when the blue one could become that powerful with all of the emeralds. Kidnapping, blackmail, and manipulation were the key, especially with Nazo's superior intelligence. Who could he take? The blue one would be impossible to catch, and the red one could break out with his strength. Nazo didn't have the resources to build a strong enough prison. The pink one? No. Nazo was still afraid of that hammer. Ah, yes! The girl was still the answer! She didn't have a way of contacting her friends, she couldn't fight, and she loved the fox as much as he loved her. So it was settled. Nazo would rig up long-range chaos sensors in case of any unwelcome foes. It was time to get that fox and make the girl hand over the emeralds. Alongside his stolen Master Emerald, nothing would stand in his way.

Tails woke up late. He had been more tired than he thought last night; it was 9:00 AM when he awoke. He went into Cosmo's side of the house. It might have seemed weird, but he was a little protective of his girl after three kidnappings. "Tails? Is that you?" He heard Cosmo from her kitchen.

"That depends. Are you Cosmo, or Nazo faking her voice?" Tails joked.

Cosmo laughed. "No, it's me. Fancy thing actually waking up in my own house for once. What's up?"

"Like you said, it's nice to actually wake up to find you instead of a ransom note. Just making sure you're safe," Tails hoped that he didn't sound overprotective. "I'd guess I didn't wake you?"

"No; I was up around 8. Want some breakfast? I made extra," Cosmo wanted to do something for Tails for a change. Recently, she had felt sort of like a freeloader, him doing everything for her and her doing nothing in return.

"What is it?" Tails liked Cosmo's cooking, but she sometimes went overboard with the vegetables.

"Just French toast," Cosmo had planned on inviting Tails for breakfast anyway, so she intentionally cut down on the fruits and veggies, since she knew Tails wasn't crazy about them. "There's regular syrup, or strawberry."

"Okay. Thanks," Tails said as he walked into the kitchen to grab a piece.

"No, sit down. Let me do it," Cosmo said as she pushed Tails over to a chair. "I feel like you've been doing too much for me lately with no reward."

"That's really nice of you, but you didn't have to. Being with you is a reward in itself." Tails meant what he said, but he was happy at the same time that Cosmo was doing something for him.

"Here," Cosmo said with bright eyes. She put the plate on the table.

"Wow, it looks great! Thanks, Cosmo," Tails said as he started on his breakfast. He stopped for a second. "Aren't you going to eat?"

"I already did," Cosmo replied. Tails went back to his food. Soon he had finished it. "Do you want any more?" Cosmo asked.

"Nah, I'm alright. But thanks," Tails replied. "It was delicious."

"The pleasure's all mine," Cosmo smiled at Tails.

Nazo grinned. He had been spying on the couple the entire morning. He was virtually a genius, so influencing either one's mind would be possible, although the fox's would be difficult. The girl was smart, but not nearly smart enough. Plus, both would be completely unaware that they were being influenced, which meant no resistance. He began to think about who would have to leave the duplex so that the kidnapping would succeed. _The girl. If the fox left, he would be in public, people would see, and it would be hard to leave a ransom note. So that's settled. _Nazo reached into Cosmo's mind. He could see what she was about to do. He would do this in combat, but it took concentration. Nazo began to attempt to overrule the girl's volition. _Find Tails, tell him you need to go grocery shopping. Take the plane._

Cosmo was walking when she simply seemed to lose her ability to do so. She tried, but felt like her brain was disconnected from her limbs. Suddenly, she began to walk in a different direction. _What's going on?_ Cosmo thought as she involuntarily walked toward Tails' side of the house. She would tell Tails what was going on, but she couldn't even speak.

"Hey, Tails," her mouth said. "I'm going food shopping. You need anything?"

"Yeah, could you pick up some milk for me?" Tails replied. "I'll pay you back for it,"

Cosmo fought to control her own mind. _Get out of my head!_ She thought at her unknown captor. "Okay. I-I-I-Tai-I…" Cosmo physically froze up.

_Impossible! How is she putting up a fight?_ Nazo thought to himself as he tried to get a handle on the girl's brain.

"Are you okay?" Tails was a little bit disturbed by Cosmo's strange behavior. "Do you need to see a doctor?"

Cosmo pushed hard to tell Tails what was happening, but her mental opponent was strong. "Tails, I-"

"What? What?" Tails was now worried sick. Was Cosmo having some kind of seizure? "That's it; I'm taking you to a doctor."

_No! _Nazo thought from outside. If Cosmo was moved too far away, the plan would fail!

"C'mon, let's go," Tails said. He fired up Cosmo's plane and grabbed her hand.

Suddenly Cosmo calmed down. _No! _Cosmo thought. She had lost what control she had. Now she was totally at the mercy of her attacker. "I'm feeling fine. I'll be going," Cosmo said, motioning Tails to get out of the driver's seat.

"No. I'm not letting that weird spasm go unnoticed. You're coming with me," Tails didn't move.

Nazo sighed. He hadn't regained control quickly enough. He shouldn't have underestimated the girl in the first place. Nazo erased the memory of being overtaken from Cosmo's mind, and teleported back to base.

"Okay," the last thing Cosmo remembered was Tails telling her to come with her. Something about the doctor's office. For some reason, she didn't want to mention it to Tails that she didn't remember much. Something in the back of her mind said not to.

After a short visit and nothing wrong with Cosmo, (save for a strangely blurry memory of the earlier ten minutes) the two flew home. Tails was half-expecting it when there was a knock on his door. _Even when I know it's coming, it startles me, _he thought as he looked through the peephole to see Eggman, just as expected. Tails opened the door. "Hello. I believe you're here to discuss terms," Tails said as he let Eggman in the house. "Sit down; I prepared some refreshments." Tails walked into the kitchen to grab a platter of hors d'oeuvres. He looked at the knives. What if Eggman was here to double-cross him? Tails grabbed a knife and hid it in plain sight: on the plate. To create an excuse, he put a loaf of bread on.

"So, I have a design for a new robot especially designed to resist Nazo's chaos energy and telekinetic force. However, I need three Chaos Emeralds to run it," Eggman said as he took a cracker.

"I see. I might give that to you, but for two reasons: One, I don't quite trust you, and two, I don't even have the emeralds right now. They're with Sonic," Tails was worried that without using all of the emeralds at once, they wouldn't be able to defeat Nazo.

"Okay then. Can you contact him?" Eggman asked with his mouth full.

"Yes, but I won't," Tails quickly replied. "I still don't trust you. I don't want to give you the emeralds without everyone else here. Plus, how do I know you're not just trying to get the emeralds out of us for some other purpose? Show me your blueprints."

"I didn't think to bring them," Eggman said, nervous. _Blast! How am I going to convince him?_ "I hate Nazo as much as you do. He wants to destroy the universe and create an empire."

Tails nearly wanted to put the knife to Eggman's throat right there. A dark look made its way into his eyes. "_No one_ hates Nazo as much as I do," he growled. "How do you know what he wants to do?"

"When predicting what a villain will do, you need to think like one," Eggman said matter-of-factly. "I have experience."

Tails' expression lightened. "Fair," he said. "Let's get Sonic."

Knuckles sat on the stairs leading up to the empty altar, devastated. The Master Emerald was gone, and he hadn't defended it. The Nazo duplicate had bested him. He hadn't even had the will to contact his friends about the loss, although he knew that they should know. He decided to contact Sonic. Tails had already seen, but he had been preoccupied with a lot. He had probably forgotten.

"Sonic?" Knuckles spoke into the small video watch.

"'Sup, Knuckles?" Sonic greeted. Knuckles could tell from the background that he was running.

"The Master Emerald has been taken," Knuckles said, downcast.

"Did I hear you right? It's been taken? Again?" Sonic seemed more surprised than last time.

"Yeah. The Nazo twin overpowered me and took it," Knuckles frowned. "I can't believe I lost to a clone."

"Boo hoo, stop crying and let's go get it," Sonic kept his cool.

"Okay…you still have the emeralds, don't you?" Knuckles remembered the last fight.

"Yeah. Let's—hang on, I have another call," Knuckles was put on hold as Sonic took it. A couple of minutes later, Sonic was back on the screen.

"Who was it?"

"Tails. He wants to team up with Eggman."

"Why?"

"Eggman claims to hate Nazo as much as we do. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' Egghead needs three emeralds to create a robot that sounds like it'll take out Nazo in seconds."

"I don't trust him. He fooled me on that desert planet, and I no longer associate with him outside of fighting. You guys do what you want; I'm your backup in case the fatso tries something stupid."

"Okay, Knux. In the meantime, let's get the big emerald."

"Let's go. We'll meet in the valley."

"Got it. I'm out." Knuckles hung up. He got on the ATV that he'd saved from a few years ago and drove off to the valley.

Sonic ran. He had been running for a couple of days on end. After Knuckles' call, he changed direction and made way towards the valley. He was running to clear his mind and think about things. About Tails and how he was handling Nazo. Just now, about Knuckles and losing the emerald. Could Nazo use the Master Emerald's power like Sonic could use that of the Chaos Emeralds? Sonic thought about Cosmo. _She must be completely traumatized, _he thought as he approached the valley. He could see Tails' house in the distance, and Amy's house to the left. Sonic could barely make out Knuckles' ATV coming over the horizon. He stopped. Knuckles arrived shortly.

"Hi, Knuckles. What's the plan?" Sonic said as he produced the Chaos Emeralds.

"We go to the city and assault Nazo to get the emerald back. Between the two of us, we can probably take him. You go Super Sonic and fight him while I find the Master Emerald," Knuckles said, the gears in his head turning as he formulated a good plan.

"Got it; let's go," Sonic grinned as he ran off toward the city. Knuckles got on his ATV and drove. Shortly, the two were at the city, eyeing the abandoned warehouse.

"I thought you said that place was slated for demolition," Knuckles said. There was no preparation at all and it had been a few days.

"Maybe Nazo got the guys not to do it? That's all I can think of," Sonic answered, a little perplexed. How had Nazo done that? "Whatever. Time to go," he said as he began to work the emeralds. Soon, he was glowing and even more powerful than Nazo. "Run in and look for the emerald thirty seconds after I engage Nazo."

"Got it. Get in there," Knuckles said. "We've got work to do."

Sonic flew quickly towards the base when a laser aimed and struck him head-on, knocking him back. _Damn! How did that thing aim so fast?_ He thought as he tried again. And for a second time, the lasers hit him and he bounced harmlessly away. Knuckles looked at what was happening and worried. What if Sonic couldn't even get in? Sonic fell back to where the two started and released the emeralds.

"Give me one of the saddlebags from your ATV," Sonic said. Knuckles grabbed one of the bags and Sonic put the Chaos Emeralds in it. "If I can't blast in, I'll go super inside." Sonic went up to the doors of the warehouse and saw a keypad. _That figures_. Sonic simply spun through the door and used the emeralds once inside. He flew through a floor and saw Nazo working on the Master Emerald. "Hey, buddy!" Sonic yelled as he rammed Nazo. "Watcha doin' with the emerald?" Sonic grabbed Nazo and pushed him up onto the roof so that Knuckles could make off with the Master Emerald.

_You needn't know, _Nazo thought mysteriously as he hit Sonic with a wave of energy.

"I think I do, actually," Sonic shot back as he deflected the power and smacked his foe. The two fought, and Sonic kept the upper hand through it all. Meanwhile, Knuckles was downstairs, taking the emerald. He grabbed it and ran out of the building. Knuckles put the Master Emerald on the ATV and drove away. He sent a special transmission to Sonic's ComLink.

Sonic heard his ComLink make a custom sound. That was the cue that Knuckles had gotten the emerald and it was time to flee. As much as Sonic wanted to finish Nazo right there, he knew Tails wanted to kill Nazo himself. "Bye, shiny!" Sonic taunted as he blasted through the wall and flew off at superspeed.

Nazo shrugged after Sonic left. He went back down to continue work on his power adapter for the Master Emerald when he found that the emerald was missing. _Blast! _He thought as he eyed the empty port. _The fight was a simple diversion! The echidna must have made off with the emerald!_ Nazo was furious. This meant that the fox had to be taken that much more quickly. Nazo realized that he could take Tails while the girl was home; it wasn't like she could fight. _The plan begins._

Cosmo sat on her bed and wondered what to do. Tails was out, and the gardening was all done. _I know! I'll call Amy!_ Cosmo thought and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Amy's voice came in through the speaker.

"Hi, Amy," Cosmo said. "Do you want to come over for lunch?"

"That sounds nice," Amy smiled. She and Cosmo hadn't had much girl time together, and with Cream out on vacation, Amy needed the distraction. "When can I come over?"

"Oh, in about a half hour. I need time to prepare," Cosmo answered cheerfully.

"Okay. See you then!" Amy said. She hung up and got ready.

Cosmo went about making lunch. She didn't really know what Amy would like, so she put out a bunch of different sandwiches and tea. 30 minutes later, there was a knock at her door.

"Hi, Amy," Cosmo greeted. "Please, come on in."

"Thank you," Amy replied. She sat down in the dining room.

"So, how's life been treating you? Anything happening?" Cosmo asked as she took a sandwich. "I didn't know what you'd like, so I made a little sandwich "buffet".

Amy laughed as she took her own sandwich. "Nothing much. Just hanging out. What's up with you?"

"Same here," Cosmo lied. There was a lot on her mind about Nazo and Tails, but she didn't want to worry Amy.

"No, there's something on your mind," Amy's face hardened. "You're hiding something. Come on, don't be afraid to tell me."

"It's nothing. Please, let's just change the subject," Cosmo was desperate to talk about something else. "How are things with you and Sonic?"

"You can't shake me that easy. How are things between you and Tails?" Amy was playing hard. "Any problems between you two?"

Cosmo sighed in defeat. "No, but I'm not going to spend the whole day doing this," she said. "I just feel bad about putting Tails and Sonic and Knuckles all in danger."

"How so?"

"Well, remember that one day when Nazo took me and threatened me for the last two emeralds?" Cosmo shuddered at the memory. "He's tried it two more times. I guess that since he's not strong enough to just take us all at once, he's using blackmail and distraction to take us one at a time. It's been putting everyone in danger, especially Tails."

"And how is it your fault that Tails loves you that much?" Amy was confused.

"It isn't. It's my fault that I can't defend myself," Cosmo said. She faintly heard a door close.

"Speak of the devil; I think Tails is home," Amy said cheerfully. "Want to go say hi?"

Cosmo brightened up. "Sure. Let's go," she said. She opened the door between the two houses. "Tails? Are you home?"

"Cosmo? Is that you?" Tails asked.

"Yeah. I invited Amy over a little while ago. She wanted to say hi," Cosmo replied.

"Hey, Tails," Amy broke in. "What's up?"

"A lot, actually," Tails said. "Eggman visited. We're discussing teaming up against Nazo."

"What?" Amy was incredulous. "Why did you do that?"

"Don't worry, I didn't agree to anything," Tails was nervous that Amy would go berserk. "I was going to check with you guys and have a big group discussion. I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Okay…" Amy cooled down. "Just don't trust him."

"Hey, guys," Cosmo said. "It's not that I don't like this, but I kind of wanted to just get together like normal people.

"Oh, okay, Cosmo," Tails said. "What do you guys want to do?"

"Well, Amy and I wanted to kind of get together and have a little girl time," Cosmo was embarrassed that she was having to say this and cut out Tails.

"Alright," Tails completely understood that Cosmo wanted to just have some time with another girl. "Have fun."

"See you later," Cosmo told Tails as she closed the door. To Amy, she said: "Well, that was interesting. What now?"

"Want to go into town? I hear there's a great new shoe store," Amy said.

Cosmo smiled. She felt like she was just a normal girl. "Let's go." She went down to her side of the workshop where her plane was and got in.

"Tails taught you how to fly this?" Amy was impressed.

"Yeah. Isn't he the sweetest? He made this especially for me," Cosmo said.

"Cool!" Amy got into the passenger seat. "Wow, this is a lot more comfortable than the X-Tornado."

"Yeah, Tails designed it that way on purpose," Cosmo said as she started the engine. "Let's go!" The plane emerged from underground and went down Tails' runway. Soon, Cosmo and Amy were landing at the store.

Tails saw the plane leave from his window. He smiled. _I'm glad that Cosmo can fly to wherever she wants,_ he thought. He wanted Cosmo to be with her friend. Tails knew how hard the last few days had been for his girlfriend, and he wanted her to have some fun with another girl. Plus, he didn't want to go shoe shopping. He decided to follow Cosmo's example.

"Sonic?" Tails called into his ComLink.

"Hi, Tails," Sonic answered. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to get out, just go around town until we see something we'd like to do," Tails said.

"Umm…Okay," Sonic said. He was a little weirded out, but he and Tails hadn't really had any casual time to hang out. _I guess this isn't too weird,_ he thought.

"You been wanting to do anything in particular recently?" Tails asked.

"Want to go skydiving?" Sonic asked out of nowhere.

"How?" Tails asked.

"You own a jet. Put it on autopilot and jump out," Sonic said matter-of-factly.

"Okay. I have parachutes," Tails said, warming up to the idea. "Come to my house."

"Okay," Sonic hung up. About a minute later, there was a knock on Tails' door. He opened it. "Let's get ready," Sonic said.

"Right," Tails agreed. "Come down with me to the garage." Tails and Sonic walked down to the workroom. Tails grabbed two parachutes and tossed one to Sonic. "Put this on," he said. Tails walked over to the X-Tornado. "Go ahead. Get on the wing," Tails said as he climbed into the cockpit. He started the engines and initiated the jet's launch sequence. Sonic jumped up onto the wing. The X-Tornado launched off of the runway and Tails began to gain altitude. Soon, they were at the optimal jumping height.

"Wa-hoo!" Sonic yelled as he jumped off the plane. Tails set the plane on auto-pilot and opened the cockpit. He got his parachute on and jumped out. The X-Tornado would fly itself until Tails called it back with his ComLink. Tails jumped, screaming all the way. When he was at the right height, he pulled the parachute cord, but nothing happened. He tried again, but the parachute refused to open. _What the heck?_ Tails thought. He looked for Sonic below him, and he appeared to be in the same predicament. Tails could make out his friend pulling the cord frantically as he descended. Tails began to panic. Falling at this speed, trying to fly on his own would be synonymous with tearing his tails off. And what would Sonic do? Tails tried to call in the X-Tornado on his ComLink, but it wasn't responding. Tails screamed again. But this time, it wasn't from the thrill of falling. It was from the horrifying realization that he was going to die.

_Perfect,_ Nazo thought as he watched the two small figures fall. As he listened to Sonic's and Tails' conversation, he got an idea, and influenced Sonic's relatively weak mind to say skydiving (It had taken quite some effort due to Sonic's physical distance away). Nazo had teleported to Tails' garage hacked out the X-Tornado's return system, and he sabotaged the parachutes. Once Sonic and Tails were dead, their friends would be helpless. The red moron couldn't defeat Nazo on his own, not even with the pink one's help. _The universe will soon be mine!_

Cosmo and Amy were flying back to the valley. They were talking the whole time. Cosmo hadn't seen anything that tickled her fancy, but Amy found some nice new shoes for a special occasion. As they flew, Cosmo thought she could make out Sonic and Tails falling.

"Hey, Amy, do you see Sonic and Tails over there?" Cosmo asked, perplexed. Was she paranoid and imagining it? Or were Sonic and Tails really falling?

Amy looked out the window. "Hey, I see them too!" she said, her voice rising. "Don't worry, Sonic, I'm coming!" she yelled. In the confined plane, it hurt Cosmo's ears. "Fly over there, Cosmo! Sonic and Tails are in trouble!" Amy ordered.

"On it," Cosmo said. She was getting pumped; there was a fire in her eyes. She pushed the jet to its maximum speed. "Come on, come on!" she muttered, willing the machine to move faster. As she did, she noticed a small button on the dash. It read, EMERGENCY TRANSFORMATION. "Well, this is definitely an emergency," she said grimly.

"What did you say?" Amy asked. She would have said more, but a chorus of mechanical parts moving drowned her out. Amy felt the plane getting bigger and faster as the _whirr_ of the turbines was replaced by the familiar blasting sound of rocket thrusters. Looking out her window, Amy saw the wings growing and slanting back, and the cockpit shrinking slightly to make room for the expanding engine. Missiles popped out under the wings, and the dashboard become much more complicated. "What's going on?" Amy shouted over the noise of the transformation.

"I saw a button that said 'emergency transformation'," Cosmo replied, intimidated by the advanced controls. "We weren't going fast enough, so I didn't feel like I had any other choice."

"There's Sonic!" Amy yelled. The self-upgraded plane was approaching the duo at a fast rate. Cosmo veered to the left and nosedived to catch Sonic. He landed right on the front of the plane, like a hood ornament. He looked confused until he saw the faces in the cockpit. _When did Cosmo learn to fly?_ he thought. Despite his confusion, Sonic understood what was going on. Tails was 50 feet up and falling fast. Sonic made his way onto the wing.

"Tails!" Cosmo exclaimed as she flew toward the fox at her new maximum speed, which was now well over 700 miles per hour. When she realized just how fast she was going, she laid off the throttle and dipped to get under Tails. Cosmo heard him land on the roof of the green jet. When she did, she slowed down even more and landed. It was a little bumpy, given the jet's new design, but certainly survivable. Cosmo opened the cockpit.

Tails was bewildered. About thirty seconds ago, he and Sonic were falling to their doom. Just now, a plane that looked strikingly like what he set Cosmo's plane to look like once it transformed saved him. It was even the same color. _Who was just flying that?_ he wondered. Tails realized that Sonic was holding him by his shoulders. If it wasn't for Sonic, Tails would have slipped right off the jet. "Thanks, Sonic," he said as his friend released him. Upon standing independently, though, Tails found himself extremely nauseous. He fell back into Sonic, who wasn't expecting it. The pair fell off of the plane and landed on the soft grass. Tails got off of Sonic and lay there, trying to get a hold of his thoughts. Sonic stood up.

"Cosmo! When did you learn to fly like that?" Sonic asked, impressed and surprised that Cosmo had really just done that. "I—" Sonic was cut off when Amy ran up and hugged him.

"Oh, Sonic, I was so worried! What were you doing anyway…" Amy attacked Sonic with a barrage of questions while Cosmo ran to Tails, who was still lying down.

"Tails? Are you okay?" Cosmo asked, worried sick.

Tails opened his eyes. He smiled when the first thing he saw was Cosmo's face. "I'm fine, thanks to you," he said, then caught himself and looked at the transformed jet. "Wait, you transformed it? And you flew that thing?" Tails asked, amazed. "That was designed to be as powerful and fast as the X-Tornado!" Tails couldn't believe it. "Cosmo…you saved my life…and Sonic's, too," Tails got up and hugged Cosmo tightly.

"What were you and Sonic doing?" Cosmo asked after the couple broke their embrace. As happy as she was that Tails was safe, she was annoyed, too. "What could have possibly come over you to make you jump out of the X-Tornado?"

"Sonic and I wanted to go sky—the X-Tornado!" Tails exclaimed, finally getting his head fully together. "It didn't come back when I hit the button! It's just been flying itself in a straight line this whole time!" Tails tried again to summon it, but the small watch simply said REMOTE AUTOPILOT DISABLED. UNABLE TO BRING BACK X-TORNADO. "Why isn't it working?" Tails muttered with frustration.

"Tails!" Cosmo said, exasperated. "Will you quit thinking about the plane and talk to me?" Cosmo loved Tails more than anyone else, but sometimes his head was thicker than a brick wall.

Tails was shaken out of his thoughts over why the X-Tornado couldn't return. "Sorry," he apologized. "The jet has a lot of sentimental value to me, like your amulet to you. I can't think that it might be lost forever."

"I understand," Cosmo's hand involuntarily went to the jewel in her chest. "Regardless, what did you do?"

"Sonic and I wanted to go skydiving. It seemed like a fun idea, and I had the parachutes, and everything," Tails said. "When we were falling, our parachutes both failed. When I think about it, it's weird that they both failed. Especially considering I made them myself…" Tails trailed off. He exchanged glances with Sonic, who was busy telling Amy the same story. Suddenly, the same thought went through the whole group's heads.

"You don't suppose…" Sonic said, a troubled expression on his face.

"Could someone have sabotaged the parachutes?" Cosmo finished for him.

"I don't know," Tails answered. "No one came in my house today except for Sonic. Besides, someone wouldn't have done this unless they knew we were going skydiving. They would have had to be invisible to get down there and sabotage everything, including the Tornado's autopilot." Tails remembered once more that his X-Tornado was still flying around, and he went to his ComLink to try to bring it back. Since remote autopilot didn't work, he tried remote control. It worked. While Tails used the watch to steer the jet back towards the valley, Cosmo, Sonic, and Amy kept on talking.

A dark look took Amy's face. "Invisible…or teleporting," she said grimly. "It must have been Nazo."

Cosmo looked down at her amulet, and she rubbed her forehead. _How? Tails made the jammer,_ she thought. _Besides, I wasn't even there when they said that._ "How could he have known?" she said to no one in particular. She realized that he could have been conventionally spying on them (hiding in the bushes, etc.) or that he had other feeds. Or, maybe he had the actual ability to turn invisible.

"You got me," Sonic said. "How could he have been spying on us?"

"He's a weird guy," Amy added. "Who knows what tricks he has up his sleeve?" Everyone's thoughts were broken by the sound of the X-Tornado landing in front of Tails' house.

"What a relief," Tails was simply thinking out loud, but everyone heard him. "Just for the record, I was listening that whole time," he said defensively, as if someone had just called him obsessed with machines.

"Let's stop worrying about this," Sonic said, leaning against the X-Tornado. "He tried to kill Tails and I; I realize this, but what's the point in talking about this? We can't change the past; what's the point of thinking of what we could have done." Sonic was remarkably good at keeping his cool.

"He's right," Tails agreed. "We should stop dwelling on what just happened." Tails realized for the first time that he was starving. _I guess mortal terror gets a guy hungry,_ he thought. "Anyone else hungry?"

"Actually, yeah."

"I could go for something to eat."

"Let's have dinner."

"Okay, then," Tails said. He and Cosmo exchanged looks, and they both nodded. "Sonic, Amy, why don't you guys stay for dinner?"

Before Sonic could say anything, Amy agreed. "Sure! Come on, Sonic," she said as she dragged him in after Tails and Cosmo. Tails saw what was going on and suppressed a laugh.

After about 30 minutes, Tails came into the dining room to find everyone talking and having a good time. "Hey, guys!" he said. "Dinner's on!" Tails put the dishes out on the table. A little-known fact about Tails: He was actually a really good cook. Everyone dug in.

At the end of the night, Sonic and Amy left. Tails was tired. He yawned. "I'm heading off to bed," he told Cosmo as he made for the staircase.

"Wait," she said and grabbed his shoulder.

"Yeah?" Tails asked. Only it wasn't Cosmo anymore. It was Nazo, with an evil smile on his face. Tails saw Cosmo's dead body on the floor. His heart began pumping hard. He grabbed a knife and tried to kill Nazo, rage fueling his actions. The glowing hedgehog laughed demonically as he jumped out of the way and blasted Tails. Not knowing what else to do, Tails ran out his door. When he left, though, there was no ground beneath his feet. He looked behind him and saw the Blue Typhoon, and Dark Oak as the three-headed monster. One of the heads lunged for Tails and got him. Just as the mouth closed, Tails could see Nazo's laughing face on the Blue Typhoon. Then Tails died.

"AAAHH!" Tails screamed as he sat bolt upright in his bed. His heart was going a million miles an hour, he was breathing hard, and he felt beads of sweat on his face. He sighed with relief, but he was still scared out of his mind. _It was just a dream,_ he thought. Tails got out of bed and went downstairs. He poured himself a glass of milk and looked out the window. _Oh, my gosh_. Tails had never had a dream that scary in his life. After he drained his glass, he went over into Cosmo's house, slowly opening and closing doors as he made his way to her room so as not to wake her up. Despite that it was just a dream, Tails wanted to see Cosmo safe. It comforted him. He saw her sleeping soundly. Tails couldn't help but smile as he looked at her. He softly stroked her hair.

"Good night," he whispered, and left. Tails went back to his side of the house and fell into a black, dreamless sleep.

TWO DAYS LATER

Tails woke up tired. Over the past two days, he'd had horrible nightmares, most of them involving either him or Cosmo dying. He yawned and got out of bed. After going through his usual morning, Tails sat and relaxed, watching reruns on television. By the time he decided to do something else, it was already noon. _I should call up the gang and Eggman to settle things,_ he thought. Tails reached for the phone and dialed in the code to call Sonic's ComLink. Sonic picked up quickly.

"Hello?" he asked. Sonic didn't know Tails was calling from a regular phone, and he got nervous when no one was on the video screen.

"Hey, Sonic. It's Tails," Tails answered. "I'm calling from a regular phone."

"Oh, alright. What do you need?" Sonic was hoping it would be something to do, because nothing had happened since the skydiving incident and he was bored.

"Just come to my house," Tails said. "I'm going to invite everyone else and Eggman so we can discuss terms about allying with him."

Sonic naturally didn't like Eggman, but they would need the Doctor's help against Nazo. "Okay. You get Eggman to your place; I'll get Amy and Knuckles."

"Okay, Sonic," Tails agreed. "See you soon."

"Over and out," Sonic said as he hung up. He contacted Amy and Knuckles, and the threesome was soon on their way to Tails' house.

Dr. Eggman arrived shortly after Sonic and the rest of the gang did. Tails put out snacks, and the group got down to business. He'd had Cosmo come too, since she was a part of the group. Cosmo stayed close to Tails. _I guess she's still scared of Eggman,_ he thought.

Sonic was the first to speak up. "Okay, Eggman, what exactly do you plan on doing?" he asked suspiciously.

"I wish to team up with you. I know about Nazo, and I know what he wants. If he does get to make his empire, we'll all die! 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' I don't like you, Sonic, and I know you don't like me, but we need to work together to bring Nazo down," Eggman said. Sonic didn't know if it was just him, but if felt like Eggman was talking down to them, as if he was the superior one.

"Okay, so you've said why we need you," Knuckles said. "Why do you need us?" Knuckles had been tricked by Eggman numerous times, and he was determined not to let it happen again.

"I need your fighting skills, and Tails' mechanical genius alongside my own. Plus, I need the Chaos Emeralds. I have blueprints for a new robot that is resistant to chaos energy and telekinesis. It will surely bring Nazo down for good, but it needs co-pilots and some extra outside help," Eggman gestured toward Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy. "And, of course, a power source."

"Why don't you use Decoe and Bocoe?" Amy asked.

The doctor lowered his head. "They were destroyed in an explosion. I couldn't fix them." _Just kidding,_ he thought. Decoe and Bocoe were fine. He just needed the emeralds to give to Nazo so he could get on the white hedgehog's side. Eggman suppressed a smile at his own diabolical genius.

"Show us the robot, then," Cosmo said. She was trying to be strong, but it came out sounding rather timid. "We don't trust you, and we won't give you the emeralds until you give us a robot."

"Very well," Eggman said. "Give me ten days, and I'll show you a chaos-proof robot."

Tails exchanged glances with the rest of the group. After a unanimous unspoken _yes,_ Tails said, "Fine. Come back in ten days with your robot."

"As you wish," the Doctor agreed. He left.

"Finally, he's gone," Cosmo blurted out. "I hate that guy."

"That makes two of us," Sonic agreed.

"You guys should probably go," Tails said. He tried not to sound rude. "For all we know, Nazo is spying on us and waiting to kill us all. We shouldn't be all together at once very often, and not for long when we are."

The three guests uttered their agreement and left. Tails was sincere in what he had just said, but he also wanted to talk with Cosmo about Eggman. As she left, Tails grabbed her shoulder. "Wait," he said. A sense of déjà vu gripped him as he remembered the first nightmare. "I want to talk to you."

"About what?" Cosmo replied. "Is there a problem?"

"Why were you so afraid of Eggman back there? Did he hurt you in any way?" Tails asked, concerned.

"No," Cosmo answered. "I just don't like him. It brings back bad memories." Cosmo was telling the truth. Eggman reminded her of the Metarex and of what happened at the center of the universe. He also reminded her of when Nazo captured her. Cosmo made a move to leave; she didn't want to talk about this.

"Cosmo, are you sure?" Tails wasn't quite buying it. "You seemed actually scared of him."

"Tails, can we please not talk about this?" Cosmo wanted to change the subject.

Tails sighed. "You know I can't say no to you," he replied. As he turned around, he heard a loud crash behind him. "What the—" he said. There floated Nazo, holding Cosmo.

_Hello again,_ Nazo said.

"Cosmo!" Tails yelled as his girlfriend struggled to break Nazo's grip. He dove for Nazo, blind with anger. _No one hurts her,_ he thought. Nazo grabbed Tails as well.

_You're coming with me, too, lover boy,_ he said mockingly. All three were teleported away.

Sonic ran. He had been running for a while; it helped him think. About Nazo and Tails and Cosmo. He had nothing to do. Eggman wasn't due for a week with his robot, and nothing was going on with Nazo as far as he knew. Sonic was suddenly taken by an urge to slow down. He felt an incredible wave of fatigue hit him, and he was struggling to stay awake. Sonic felt as if all of the events in his entire life had caught up with him. The last thing he remembered was falling on the ground.

Sonic woke up with a huge headache. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in a base. Nazo's base. _Uh oh,_ he thought. Sonic's first instinct was to run, but he couldn't. He realized that he was on a wheel, like the kind they used in knife-throwing shows. Nazo walked in.

_Hello, hedgehog, _he said with a grin. _I trust you slept well?_

"What do you want?" Sonic asked. He prepared to spin out of the wheel, but he couldn't. _Where are the others?_ he wondered.

Nazo quite literally read the blue blur's mind. _Why, I thought you'd never ask,_ Nazo said smugly. He hit a button, and the entire wheel assembly turned 90 degrees. Sonic saw all of his friends: Tails, Cosmo, Knuckles, and Amy, each in traps that were like his. They were gagged. Knuckles' trap appeared reinforced to withstand the echidna's strength. _Look at what else I've got,_ Nazo taunted as the wheel turned again. Sonic saw a complicated-looking machine that held the Chaos Emeralds in a glass chamber. _But wait, there's more!_ Nazo sounded like an infomercial host. The chair made a third turn, and the Master Emerald was on a port designed to harness its power. Sonic could see that the two machines were connected. The chair returned to its normal position.

"If you were able to get all of us in here so easily, why didn't you just kill us right away?" Sonic asked.

_Kill you? Where's the fun in that? _Nazo half-joked. _Once my empire is complete, you will be my personal slaves._ Nazo smirked. _Who knows? Maybe if you're really good, you'll get to eat two meals a day._ Sonic struggled against his bonds when he felt a large mass in his mouth. He'd been gagged. _You're lucky. You got the sneak preview. No one else will see what I just showed you. That's what they get for sleeping in._ Nazo gestured to the rest of the gang. Sonic looked at his captor with contempt. _Now go back to sleep._ Sonic felt as if his brain were imploding; it was pain like he'd never felt before. The blue hedgehog soon passed out.

A WEEK LATER, AT TAILS' HOUSE

Eggman arrived with a model robot. The thing was completely useless, but it would pass any sort of inspection that Tails had planned. No one seemed to be home at Tails' house. "Hello?" Eggman called as he checked his watch. _This is the right time,_ he thought. The gang was supposed to meet at Tails' house today at 2:00 PM. An idea struck the Doctor. _If I can track the emeralds, then the group shouldn't be far._ Sure enough, Eggman got a reading in a different location. The energy signature seemed to be coming from Nazo's base. Perplexed, Eggman readied his flight pod and brought a powerful blaster along, just in case the gang had unfriendly company. Within ten minutes, Eggman was approaching Nazo's base. The anti-aircraft warning lights flashed on in Eggman's pod. He was being targeted by anti-air forces built into Nazo's walls! _Do your worst,_ the Doctor thought, and a grin flashed across his face. At the push of a button, flare missiles shot out of the small pod. These were aimed at the anti-air cannons, and would also draw any incoming missiles away from the spherical airship. Nazo's anti-air security was neutralized within two minutes. Eggman's pod converted into a mech as he landed it. He drove his bipedal robot through the hallways of the abandoned manufacturing plant. After some walking, Eggman saw a door with a window in it. Through the window, he saw Sonic and his friends on…knife wheels? The Doctor understood immediately. _This is a world record for bad timing,_ he thought. Eggman felt a strange sensation right about then. It was as if another consciousness was brushing up against his own. He felt a small urge to leave in the back of his mind, but he dismissed it and made for a control panel next to the door. Using a hacking device, the Doctor quickly opened the electronically locked door. Tails was the only one who could see Eggman's approach. The gagged fox's eyes widened.

Tails was amazed to see Eggman come through the door. Nazo had kept Tails and his friends there for a week now, waiting for the chaos reactors to reach their full charge. The fox wasn't sure, though, whether Eggman was there to save them or get them into even more trouble. His questions were answered when the Doctor began to use a small laser to cut through the metal bonds. Tails saw Nazo approach from behind Eggman. He tried to warn him, but still couldn't speak. The young fox was thrashing and pointing behind the scientist until he finally thought to look behind him. Eggman saw Nazo about to kill him with a blast of energy.

"Whoa!" Eggman yelled as he dashed out of the way of the blast and made for his mech. He shot Nazo with his laser blaster as he ran. The light rays bounced harmlessly off of the hedgehog. Eggman got into his mech and started it up. He launched attack after attack at Nazo, but the villain easily deflected everything.

_You can't defeat me! _Nazo mentally screamed. A huge ball of energy materialized in front of him and enveloped Eggman. After a blinding light subsided, the Doctor and his mech were trapped inside a bubble of chaos energy. The bubble slowly began to shrink in size, squishing Eggman. _Enjoy yourself in there,_ Nazo said diabolically. He left the room. Little did Nazo know, Sonic had been working at the wheel for the last week. He could nearly spin out of it. _Come on, come on,_ he thought. _One more time._ As if in obedience to his thoughts, the spin worked. Sonic untied the gag in his mouth as the feeling came back to his arms and legs. He spun into the chaos bubble holding Eggman, and it broke easily.

"Free the others," the hedgehog whispered urgently. "I'll make sure Nazo doesn't stop us." Eggman moved to Tails' wheel and got to work. The fox was free shortly.

"Take this," Eggman whispered as he handed Tails the small laser. "Free the others while I see what I can do to mess up the reactor." Tails got to work, naturally going to Cosmo first. Meanwhile, Eggman worked on the reactor. Everyone was nervous. Nazo could come in at any second and kill them all, or worse. Using his extensive knowledge of hacks, he began to attempt to open the doors holding the emeralds. He would have had Sonic or Knuckles simply break the containment chambers, but doing so while power was being taken would most likely cause a large explosion. Within 30 minutes, everyone was done with what they were doing.

"Let's get out of here," Tails said quietly, holding Cosmo's hand.

"You said it," Knuckles agreed. It had taken a long time to break his reinforced bonds.

"Give me the emeralds," Sonic told Eggman. "I can teleport us out of here." The Doctor handed over the gems, and Sonic prepared to teleport the whole group of six, himself included. In a flash, Sonic and friends (and enemy) were no longer at Nazo's base. They were in the valley.

"It feels like a vicious game of cat-and-mouse," Eggman noted with a dark look on his face. "We don't have the power to just take him. He can use his powers to take us down indirectly. He attacks. We flee. It's a cycle."

Cosmo had stopped fearing Dr. Eggman. "He's right," she agreed. "Even if we can directly overpower him, he uses indirect methods to take us out, one by one. In the end, we end up fleeing before him."

"We need to fix that, then." A fire burned in Tails' eyes. "I won't stop until that guy is _dead_."

Nazo walked calmly into the room where Sonic, Tails, and the others were being held. He had known that Eggman was coming, and he had influenced the Doctor's mind. Due to the scientist's high intelligence, Nazo could do little more than simply put the thought into his mind. It didn't matter. The glowing hedgehog was content with letting the "heroes" have a fake victory. Sure enough, everyone was gone, including the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald. Nazo chuckled. Winning when you're opponents think you've lost was the best way to win. Nazo had even programmed the blue one's wheel to break at the right time. Nazo had known everything that they were doing, right from when he left after imprisoning Eggman in the fake trap. He could have easily gone in there and wiped everyone out, using the real emeralds. They were in a secret room that no one would be able to find. The room was designed so that not even chaos detectors could sense the gems. The emeralds that Sonic and the group picked up were fakes. Nazo eyed the Master Emerald. It was only dead weight. Since he couldn't gain power from it directly, it was useless to him, but it could be beneficial to his enemies, should they manage to get it back. Nazo made his decision. The Chaos Emeralds would still work without the Master Emerald active, so he decided that nothing good could come out of the Master Emerald. Nazo destroyed it. He knew it would regenerate in time, but not in enough time. Not nearly enough. Nazo went to his secret room where the Chaos Emeralds were. He removed them from their compartment and began to put small casings on them. These would magnify their power and cause them to remain invisible to chaos sensors. Nazo teleported into space with the seven emeralds. He went inside his huge space complex and began work on the ultimate weapon. One that could shatter the fabric of time and space. A weapon that could destroy the universe.

The gang prepared for Nazo's next attack, since they all knew it was coming. Knuckles had two emeralds, Sonic had one, Amy had two, and they reluctantly gave two to Eggman. Since Tails and Cosmo, being a couple, were such good candidates for ransom, it was decided that they wouldn't have any emeralds. Knuckles kept a round-the-clock patrol on the Master Emerald. He noticed that something was amiss, though. The Master Emerald wasn't glowing much, sometimes not at all. Knuckles eyed it closely. He saw ridges. Tiny seams in the emerald. _What's this?_ he wondered. The echidna knew that emerald like the back of his hand, and he never remembered seeing cracks like that. Knuckles stuffed his hands into one of the seams and pulled. The fake emerald came apart easily, revealing a core that radiated energy. Knuckles instantly knew what was up. He and the gang had been tricked. It wasn't unlikely that the "Chaos Emeralds" they got back were fakes as well. Knuckles opened his ComLink and entered the command to contact Sonic. He picked up.

"Hey, Knuckles," he said. "What's the matter?"

"We've been tricked," Knuckles said darkly. "The Master Emerald was a fake. I'd be willing to bet that the Chaos Emeralds we took are also fakes." Knuckles kept eye contact with the on-screen Sonic as he walked to his Chaos Emeralds. Sure enough, the same ridges were there. Knuckles pulled the gem apart, revealing the artificial core.

"Whoa," Sonic said. His surprise quickly turned to anger. "That little _asshole_ tricked us again?" he yelled into the watch. Sonic took apart his emerald as well, partly to see if Knuckles was right and partly out of anger.

"Yup," Knuckles' face was grim. "Who knows what he's doing now?"

Sonic invited Tails to a group call, and his face appeared onscreen. He was taken aback when he saw two grim faces looking at him. "Am I in trouble or something?" It was the only thing he could think to ask.

Sonic and Knuckles both sighed. Sonic spoke up: "The emeralds we took back were phony. They come apart if you pull the right way."

"But they worked when Sonic teleported us," Tails said in disbelief.

"Nazo had to put some power in them; otherwise we would have realized too soon," Knuckles said. "Their cores radiate energy."

The gears in Tails' head began to turn. "Try to rebuild the emeralds that you've broken. Meet me here, now." Tails' face disappeared abruptly.

"Sounds like our friend has a plan," Sonic said, and a grin broke his solemn face.

"Indeed," Knuckles agreed. "Let's go see him." Knuckles broke off the transmission and began to work on the emerald that he broke. The thing rebuilt itself as easily as it came apart. It was as if the energy core had a magnetic pull, and all of the pieces were drawn to it if put in close enough proximity. Knuckles restarted his ATV and made for Tails' house. He knocked on the door. Tails answered, with Sonic standing behind him.

"Hey, Knuckles," he greeted. "Come in." As Knuckles stepped in, Tails motioned for him and Sonic to sit down. "So," he said seriously. "I have an idea."

"What is it?" Knuckles asked as Cosmo walked in through the side door. She hesitated when she saw Sonic and Knuckles' grave expressions.

"Is this a bad time…?" she asked.

"No, actually," Tails answered. "Please, sit down." He motioned towards a seat.

"So, what's going on?" the plant girl said.

"The emeralds we stole back were fakes. Nazo must still have the real ones," Tails replied. "But luckily, I have a plan that just might work." He motioned the three down to his workroom. They followed. Tails punched in a code on the wall, and an overly large door opened. In the newly revealed room was the Blue Typhoon, fully restored.

"When did you do this?" Sonic said.

"It's been a project of mine," the fox answered proudly. He opened the side door of the gargantuan ship. "Come with me." As they all boarded the Blue Typhoon, Tails sat in the cockpit.

"We're not flying right now, are we?" Sonic said with a surprised look.

"No, of course not," Tails assured him. "While I was fixing this thing, I added a few upgrades. For one thing, I greatly expanded the range of the Chaos Emerald seeker. If there's an emerald anywhere in the universe, this will give coordinates. Sonic, take the fake emeralds and run them to the engine room really quick."

"Got it, Tails." The hedgehog left with the emeralds and was back before his blue trail subsided. Tails powered up the Typhoon.

"With any luck, those should be enough to get all of the auxiliary systems running," he said nervously. Tails sighed with relief as the large user interface popped up. He accessed the chaos scanner and ran it. A message appeared after the scan was complete. It read: ENERGY SIGNAL IDENTIFIED. UNABLE TO DETERMINE LOCATION. "Display map," Tails said, using the newly added voice commands. A huge holographic map of the universe showed up. Working the controls, Tails found one spot that was completely jammed. "Zoom in on coordinates 0, 0, 1,000,000. Search for energy signal in general area." UNABLE TO RUN SCAN IN DESIRED LOCATION, the screen read. Tails worked some buttons and the ceiling opened. A gigantic laser cannon rose from the huge space fortress. "Fire photo laser to coordinates 0, 0, 1,000,000." The laser cannon took a second to charge up, then a brilliant green beam erupted from it. The others watched in awe. That hadn't been there before. A message showed up onscreen. PICTURE LASER DETONATED. RECEIVING IMAGE… A loading screen popped up, followed by more text: IMAGE NOT RECEIVED. TRANSMISSION JAMMED.

Tails shut down the Blue Typhoon's systems, leaving only the lights on. He addressed his comrades. "That was the only area in the universe jammed so well that neither the chaos scanner nor the picture laser worked. Three guesses who's there."

"Can we get to Nazo? Do the fake emeralds have enough power to drive the ship?" Cosmo asked worriedly.

"No need," Tails assured her. "Sonic can teleport us there. If he did it once, he can do it again, right?" Tails turned to Sonic, who simply nodded.

"Let's go, then!" Knuckles exclaimed, clearly wanting to get this show on the road.

"Wait, wait. We need Amy and Eggman; they have two emeralds each," Sonic said. "Be right back." He ran off. About five minutes later, he was back with Amy, Dr. Eggman, and the remaining emeralds. "Here we go," he muttered. Sonic closed his eyes and felt the power from the fake emeralds pour into him. While it was nothing like the rush of becoming Super Sonic, he still enjoyed it. He opened his eyes. "Chaos Control!" he shouted. In an instant, they were all floating in space, instead of inside Nazo's base like they should have been. Sonic realized what was going on and instantly teleported the gang back to Tails' house.

"Nazo must have shields up to prevent us from directly teleporting into the base," Tails realized. "We have to take the Blue Typhoon." Everyone got into their positions on the bridge. "Dr. Eggman, could you go put these last four emeralds in the engine?"

"Yes," the Doctor said as he went off to the engine room. While he was doing that, Tails began to go through the launch sequence.

"Opening roof," he said. Cosmo found it cute how he always said what he was doing out loud in this kind of environment. "Auxiliary systems online." Screens and other systems sparked to life. "Begin launch sequence. Ignite engines!" The familiar hum of the Blue Typhoon's engines rose as they began warming up. "Elevation active." The floor began to rise, lifting the Typhoon along with it. At a certain altitude, latches locked on to the sides of the ship and the whole platform tilted to a steep angle. Eggman, who was making his way back from the engine room, wasn't in a chair, so he fell over. Tails ran a quick system check. "All systems are go. Initiating launch in T-minus 10 seconds." A computerized voice began counting down. "NINE. EIGHT. SEVEN. SIX. FIVE. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE. LIFTOFF." The engines roared as they began working at their full potential. Eggman frantically strapped himself into a seat, hurrying to secure himself before the ship lifted off. The latches on the ship released as the Doctor fully anchored himself. The gigantic space base began moving at tremendous speeds upwards of 800 miles per hour as it fought to defy gravity. Cosmo and Amy, (Cosmo in particular) weren't used to this kind of speed, and they struggled to stay conscious. Tails laughed like a madman. He loved this part. Cosmo passed out. Soon, the Blue Typhoon was in space. Tails activated the reverse engines until the ship came to a stop. He wanted everyone to recover from the initial launch before they went into warpspace to get to Nazo's base. Tails was hoping that the fake emeralds would provide enough energy. Just then, he noticed that Cosmo was unconscious. The fox instantly got out of his seat and tended to her. He felt awkward doing so in front of Eggman.

"Cosmo?" he whispered. Tails lightly slapped her face, hoping it would be just enough to wake her. Being very sensitive, she did wake up. Tails sighed with relief.

"Did I faint?" she asked wearily. She still felt a little lightheaded.

"Yeah, but I don't blame you," Tails replied softly. He addressed the rest of the crew and raised his voice. "We're going into hyperspace in about ten minutes to reach Nazo's base. Do anything you need to within that time to prepare yourself." Tails began to warm up the warp drive and do the necessary protocol. After a short ten minutes, Tails addressed his crew again. "It's time to go show that Nazo who's boss," he declared. "Is everybody ready?"

"YEAH!" the group responded simultaneously.

"Okay, then," Tails said happily. "Let's take him out. Entering warpspace in five, four, three, two…ONE!" The space fortress moved unimaginably fast and made the jump into hyperspace. After about twenty seconds, Tails made the move to exit. As the group recovered from jumping across time and space, Tails checked their coordinates. 10, 0, 1,000,000. They were close. Tails looked out and saw the huge space base. "Whoa," he whispered to no one. He then raised his voice. "Guys!" He had everyone's attention. "Here's how we're doing this. Nazo's base is well-fortified and secured. We get in close and try to fry his outside security, and everyone boards except Eggman and Cosmo. Next—"

"No," Cosmo said defiantly. "I won't keep running from danger. I'm coming with you guys, Tails, whether you like it or not."

"Cosmo, it's just for your own safety," Tails reminded her.

"I don't care. I'm going, and you can't stop me." Tails knew his girlfriend well, and he realized she wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

Tails sighed. "Fine," he said, conceding to Cosmo. "You can come. Anyway, back to the plan. Everyone except Eggman will board. Doctor, you'll stay on the ship and pilot it. Lay down cover fire from outside. Everyone understand?"

Despite that no one had elected Tails leader or anything, he was the Blue Typhoon's captain, and no one objected. Everyone agreed to his plans. "Get the fake emeralds," he told Sonic. "We'll need them." The blue hedgehog was back in no time with the jewels. Tails piloted the ship forward until he heard an alarm. As he had expected, they were being locked on to by hundreds of weapons. The fox launched flares to draw away missiles and homing lasers and began to fire at the security system. Guns went down, but there were so many. Plus, the flares were running out fast. Tails got an idea. "All power to the front shields!" he yelled to his crew. Amy redirected the power.

"Redirect complete, Tails!" Amy replied.

"Full ahead!" Tails yelled to no one as he pushed the machine to high speeds. The plan worked perfectly. The shield destroyed the guns on contact and cleared the group's entry path. Tails decked himself out with gear, including a kind of badge that would go on his chest to create a shield, and some good weapons. The shield was specially designed to absorb chaos energy, robbing Nazo of his main attack. He handed Cosmo a powerful blaster and briefly explained how to use it. "Prepare to board!" Tails shouted, and deployed a tractor beam that would faze them through the wall and into the base. The fox hopped in, followed shortly by Sonic, then Knuckles. Amy and Cosmo went in last. Dr. Eggman stayed on the ship and readied the weapons, settling into the controls.

"Let's go," Sonic said, and ran to find Nazo, dragging the others behind him. The group came upon a room. A figure facing a module connected to a reactor turned around.

_I've been waiting,_ he thought-spoke scarily. _Let's finish this._

Amy looked into Nazo's eyes with contempt. She rushed the hedgehog with her hammer. Nazo grasped her with telekinesis and threw her aside. Amy saw the whole group fighting Nazo, but he didn't seem to tire. This almost seemed to amuse him. She jumped back in and swung her hammer wildly, until she managed to get Nazo under it. Amy took the chance and pelted him with blow after blow. Despite this, he seemed unfazed, if irritated. The rest of the group also seized the opportunity. While Nazo was down, everyone attacked him with their most powerful moves.

_Enough!_ he yelled into their minds. He teleported out and launched a wave of chaos energy at the whole group. Amy, Sonic, and Cosmo jumped; Tails had his shield. Knuckles got hit. Amy looked at him with concern for half a second, and she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. She turned her head and saw a glowing Chaos Spear literally sticking out of her shoulder. It hurt to swing the hammer, but she worked through the pain. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Knuckles get up. When she looked back at Nazo, a spear was coming right at her. Thinking fast, Tails jumped in front of his friend, his shield absorbing the hit.

"What are you doing?" he yelled with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Get moving or he'll kill you!" Amy began to strafe the hedgehog, slowly approaching as she did so. There was a fleeting moment of absolute silence, and everyone dove for Nazo, hitting him from all sides. He teleported out at the last second. Amy lost her balance; she had expected to hit something. Nazo reappeared and launched Chaos Spears. Still recovering from her miss, Amy turned around just in time for a spear to hit her in the neck. There was a moment of searing pain, then the world turned white. Then it turned black.

Knuckles flinched as he saw Amy drop, her neck bent at an unnatural angle. He continued to charge at Nazo, but the hedgehog would simply toss him away and launch attacks at everyone. Knuckles was already slowed down due to his injured legs from the wave of energy, so he couldn't afford to give Nazo a clean shot. He stayed mostly behind Tails, allowing the shield to take the hits. Knuckles ran in yet again to try to beat up Nazo, but he jumped just out of reach, causing Knuckles to lose balance. He felt a sharp pain in his foot and fell on the hard metal floor. Sticking out of his shoe was a Chaos Spear. Knuckles realized with a shock what had just happened. He couldn't walk. Nazo was going to kill him. Just as he was thinking this, Sonic ran in and grabbed Knuckles.

"Pretend to be unconscious," he whispered. Knuckles took the advice, closing his eyes and trying to stay motionless. Given the pain he was in, it was surprisingly easy. Knuckles lay on the floor perfectly still, and thought of what would happen.

Sonic was giving his all, and was the biggest match for Nazo, having the seven fake emeralds as a power source. Then he saw Amy for the first time. He had been so absorbed in the fight, he hadn't noticed her. Her neck was bent at an odd angle, and she lay motionless. A curtain of anger came over Sonic, and he couldn't see anything except for him destroying Nazo. He crouched, his eyes closed.

"You didn't just do that," he grumbled to Nazo. "You'll regret that!" A dark aura surrounded Sonic. He let all of the fake emeralds' power to flow into him. His skin darkened, and his pupils disappeared from his eyes. He was Dark Sonic, and he was going to kill Nazo right then. He screamed with an intensity that no one knew he had, and rushed Nazo with all of his power. The glowing hedgehog simply grabbed him with telekinesis and threw him. Sonic was even angrier now. He let everything come out. He began darting around the room so fast; it looked like he was teleporting. Nazo was distracted by trying to blast the hedgehog, which allowed Tails and Cosmo to put some decent shots into Nazo. Feeling this and appearing slightly pained, Nazo launched a powerful blow at both of them, one at a time. Tails' shield absorbed it. She was simply staying behind Tails, using his shielding as cover. Sonic finally came at Nazo from behind, and put all of his energy into the attack. Everyone expected Nazo to simply drop dead after that kind of attack. But he didn't. Instead, he looked at Sonic. The blue hedgehog felt nothing. He simply dropped as he returned to his normal form. He dropped and didn't rise.

Tails saw what was going on. He felt anger, pain, and sadness, but mostly fear. If Nazo could take out Dark Sonic, what chance did Tails have of defeating his adversary? He shot with all he had, and while it did appear to be hurting the hedgehog, it would be forever before Nazo actually went down at this rate. Tails continued strafing Nazo, and Cosmo stayed behind him. But she tripped. Off-balance and unprotected, Cosmo was instantly Nazo's only target. He launched a powerful beam at her, and something amazing happened. Cosmo's amulet glowed and projected a shield. It took the blast. Cosmo remembered what her mother had said. "_This amulet will protect you from danger."_ Frustrated, Nazo upped the beam's power, while at the same time shielding himself from Tails. The shield made by the amulet broke like a window pane. The look on Cosmo's face was one of pure terror when she was hit. She dropped, and lay unmoving.

That did it. Tails watched in horror as his one true love dropped to the ground. He surveyed the room. Sonic and Knuckles were unconscious (Tails didn't know that Knuckles was faking it). Amy and Cosmo were probably dead. _Dead._ Tails simply stayed still for one second. Rage seeped through his veins, powering his every move. Tails realized through his anger that energy would not kill Nazo. He had to be killed for real. Nazo realized the same thing. He had to blow that shield off, or Tails would never die. It was just the two of them. Tails ran at Nazo, screaming. The white hedgehog set off an explosion of chaos energy. It blew Tails' shield off, and his weapons were destroyed. Tails looked around frantically for something to fight with. Seeing a sharp piece of metal on the ground, Tails dove for it. Just as he grabbed it, he was gripped by Nazo's telekinesis.

_Look at you and your merry band of crime fighters,_ Nazo mocked. _Fallen from grace. You seriously thought you could destroy me? Foolish creatures._ There was a flick of Nazo's wrist, and Tails heard an explosion outside. He knew what it was, but he didn't dare believe it. Tails was angry. He was more than angry. Enraged didn't begin to cover it. All he could think of was killing Nazo.

"SCREW YOU!" Tails yelled. In his absolute rage, he broke free of the mental hold. Nazo was taken aback. Tails could think of nothing except destroying the one that killed his friends. He ran to Nazo, and before the hedgehog could do anything, Tails was upon him. He sunk the piece of twisted metal deep into Nazo's chest; he felt the sensation of piercing flesh and bone. Nazo verbally screamed in pain, and it sounded like a demonized banshee. Tails twisted the metal, and Nazo released another ear-piercing scream, then fell silent. The room was completely silent. Tails realized he had done it. He had killed Nazo the Hedgehog. But at what cost? Amy was almost surely dead; her neck was clearly broken. Cosmo was probably dead. Sonic was unconscious, possibly killed. Knuckles, Tails could see, was breathing. He rushed to the echidna and slapped him hard across the face. He woke instantly.

"What the heck was that about?" Knuckles asked. He saw Nazo's dead body. Tails was looking him in the eyes. Then Knuckles saw everyone on the floor. "Are…are they all…dead?"

"Let's find out," Tails said grimly. "I woke you first because you were the only one who I knew was alive." The fox ran to Cosmo, and he lightly slapped her cheek. No response. "Come on," Tails whispered. He slapped Cosmo harder. Still nothing. "No, no," Tails said. "You can't die on me, Cosmo! Not again!" Tails gathered his strength and slapped Cosmo hard. She didn't move. Tears welled up in Tails' eyes. He checked for a pulse. He felt a weak heartbeat. Thirty painful seconds later, he felt another one. Tails was relieved, but still worried. Cosmo was bruised all over, and her left arm was bent strangely. Tails remembered the explosion. He grabbed his half-broken radio. "Eggman, come in," Tails said. No reply. "I repeat, this is Tails, calling the Blue Typhoon, over."

A weak voice came in on the other line. "Blue Typhoon here, over," Tails heard Eggman say.

"Eggman! You're alive! What happened out there?" Tails was half-elated.

"A chaotic explosion rattled the ship. It's still functioning, but our engines are severely damaged. We won't make it back home," Eggman said gravely.

Tails was worried, but he had to help Knuckles and see who else was alive. "Hold tight. We're accounting for casualties. Is the ship still capable of projecting the tractor beam to get us back?"

"Barely. I'll check the engine room to see if there's anything I can do. Over and out." The transmission was cut off.

"Eggman and the Blue Typhoon are okay," Tails said.

"What?" Sonic's voice said wearily. "What happened? Did we win?"

"Sonic!" Tails rushed over to his friend and helped him up. The hedgehog had to lean on Tails' shoulders, yet he seemed physically fine. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. How are Cosmo, Knuckles, and Amy?"

"Knux is fine. Cosmo's alive, but badly hurt," Tails said. He didn't want to say the last part.

"Tails?" Knuckles called before Sonic could respond.

"What?" Tails replied.

"She's alive."

"What?" Tails was amazed. "Amy's alive?" Tails and Sonic rushed to the pink hedgehog as fast as they could.

"She's unconscious, but she has a pulse. I think Amy will be fine," Knuckles said, a smile on his face. He gingerly picked up Amy, carefully staying clear of her broken neck. Sonic got off of Tails, now able to stand on his own.

"I'm going to find the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald," Tails announced, and left. About five minutes later, he returned to the room, holding all eight gems in his arms. Tails put the glittering jewels down. Knuckles ran a quick inspection, and he promptly assured Sonic and Tails that all the emeralds were authentic.

Tails called the Blue Typhoon. "We're ready, Eggman. Beam us up."

"On it," Eggman said. After a pause, he spoke again. "Tails? I may have…miscalculated. There isn't enough energy to fire the laser."

Tails grimaced. Had they come this far, only to be unable to return home? Then he thought of something. "It's okay, Doctor. I have a plan." Tails ended communication. "Sonic?"

"Yeah, Tails?" Sonic replied.

"Do you have the energy to do one more Chaos Control?"

Sonic thought for a moment. Then, "Yes."

"Okay," Tails said. He handed Sonic the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic felt the chaotic energy leak into his body, and he uttered the words.

"Chaos Control!" In a flash of light, all five were back on the damaged Blue Typhoon.

"Knuckles, go put the real emeralds into the dock," Tails said. Knuckles nodded, took the emeralds, and ran back into the engine room. He returned shortly.

"It is done," he said.

Tails entered the cockpit and began to work the controls. "Redirecting all power to the engines. Entering warpspeed!"

The mechanical voice sounded again, though it was slightly garbled by the ship's damaged speakers. At "one", the Blue Typhoon entered warpspace yet again. In an instant, they were orbiting Mobius. Tails performed the standard landing protocol and made for the planet. After about thirty minutes, they were all back home.

FIVE DAYS LATER

Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles were at the hospital. A doctor spoke to them.

"The plant girl will be okay," he said. Tails' relief was so great, you could sense it ten feet away. "She's a little banged up, and she'll have to wear the cast on her arm for about three weeks. But she'll be fine."

"What about Amy?" Sonic asked.

"There were some…complications with her," the doctor said solemnly. "Don't worry, she'll live!" he added, seeing the looks on everyone's faces. "Come look." The doctor motioned them into another room. In there were numerous X-rays of Amy and Cosmo. "If you look at this, you'll see that two of her neck vertebrae were shattered in the accident. Reduced, literally, to dust. She is lucky to be alive at all. However, she has lost the use of her legs."

"You're saying that she'll need a wheelchair?" Sonic asked, remembering Helen from Earth.

"Yes," the doctor stated sadly. "Most likely for the rest of her life. Come here, she's been awake for a little while now." The doctor gestured to another room. In it was Amy, lying on a hospital bed.

"Hey, guys," she said. "I was wondering when you'd come."

"So, you're really going to be in a chair?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah," Amy said, looking downcast. "But since I'm, like, a hero, they're giving me the very best one, no charge."

"I guess that's good news," Knuckles added.

"How does your neck feel?" Tails asked.

"Oh, it's fine. I'll need to wear a brace for about two months. My neck has actually kind of gone numb," Amy answered.

"When are they letting you out?" Knuckles asked.

"It depends on how quickly my neck starts to heal," Amy replied. "They say that it's unsafe to go out with those two vertebrae missing. Once they begin to re-form, it'll be safe for me to go."

"As long as you guys don't mind, I'm going to go see Cosmo," Tails said. "Get well soon, Amy." Tails left the room and spoke to the doctor that had talked to them earlier. "Where is Cosmo's room?"

"Just go two doors down from Miss Rose's room," the doctor said, pointing to the doorway.

"Thank you," Tails said as he walked away. He went up to Cosmo's room and knocked on the door. Cosmo opened it.

"Hi, Tails!" she greeted happily. "Come on in." She walked back into the room as Tails followed.

The couple half-hugged; it was awkward with Cosmo's arm in a sling. "How are you feeling?" Tails asked after they broke their embrace.

"Pretty sore," Cosmo answered as she lay down on her bed. "I got hit a lot." Tails glanced at her arm, and she followed his gaze. "My arm is probably what feels best right now. It's been in the cast for a little while, so it's gone completely numb."

"When are they letting you out?" Tails asked, hoping it would be sooner than later.

"Another day or two should be all. We're just waiting until all the bruises heal so I'm not so sore," Cosmo replied. "How's Amy? I haven't been able to see her, and the doctors won't tell me."

Tails didn't want to say it, but he did: "Two of her neck vertebrae were destroyed. The doctors say she's lucky to be alive, but…" Tails trailed off.

"But what?" Cosmo asked, even though she knew that she wouldn't want to hear it.

"She lost the use of her legs. She'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life."

Cosmo gasped. "That's awful!" she exclaimed. "The next time you see her, please give her my regards."

"I will," Tails assured her.

"So, where's Nazo now?" Cosmo asked.

"Where he won't bother us anymore," Tails answered. He had forgotten that Cosmo didn't know.

"Prison?"

"Heck, no. He'd bust out in two seconds flat." Tails lowered his voice, and his face darkened for a moment. "I killed him."

"Tails!" Cosmo exclaimed.

"What? I had my heart set on killing that guy the second he made you cry. He nearly killed us all. He wanted to destroy the universe. He had to die." Tails shuddered as he remembered past events.

Cosmo sighed. "I guess you're right," she agreed.

A nurse came in for a second. "Visitor hours are ending soon. You should probably get going, sir," she said, then left.

Tails looked at Cosmo after the nurse left. "I guess I'll be leaving. I'll come back tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," Cosmo replied.

The two kissed for a moment. "Bye," Tails said, and left.

EPILOGUE

It was a year since Tails had defeated Nazo. Amy had gotten used to her new life, and she liked using her disability as an excuse to have Sonic as her "helper". The Master Emerald was safe, and the Chaos Emeralds were in Sonic's custody. Tails and Cosmo were the same as always. Dr. Eggman was back to no good, and everyone was happy that things were all normal again. As Sonic fought yet another giant robot, he thought back to that fateful day when Nazo first appeared. He homing attacked the machine, and Eggman ejected his escape pod and flew off. Sonic smiled. _Just like old times,_ he thought.

"_A new day brings new adventure. But for now—rest easy, heroes."_

—Sonic Adventure 2


End file.
